It's Blackwater all the time right now in the news. But as we try to figure out what happened in Al Nisour square, where at least 11 people were killed by Blackwater Security Contractors on Sunday, according to witnesses and the Ministry of Interior, the rest of Iraq is still ticking and still newsworthy.
Today is the day of prayers. For the second week in a row there is no curfew after a year of Friday days spent at home and walking to the mosque during a four hour curfew.
At the Sunni Friday prayers in Baghdad Sheikh Harith al Obaid held up a slip of paper and asked who would be held accountable for the slaying of an entire family in Washash, a neighborhood near the shopping district of Mansour in Baghdad.
Last night Hammoudi Naji, a top Mahdi Army leader in the area, was shot with his cousin and another man as he walked home. Someone had to pay and the Mahdi Army, the militia led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, took revenge. According to police they busted into a home and killed four women. A resident said it was the home of the suspected assassin. When they found no men they killed the women.
At midnight clashes ensued between the militia and the Iraqi Army. By 8 a.m. the neighborhood was locked down.
A Sunni family packed up their things and tried to leave. This was no place for them now. With their precious belongings in the back of their truck they crept away. But the militia opened fire on their truck and they never made it to a safer place. That is what residents told us.
The Sheikh on Friday led his congregation in prayer. But like every Friday in both Sunni and Shiite mosques across Iraq after thanking God the sermon turns to the blood and politics outside. They ask who will pay for all the blood shed.
(In no particular order). Ireland. Rwanda. Cambodia. South Africa. Darfur. Somalia. Germany. USSR. USA. Turkey. Greece. Israel. Palestine. And on and on, through the ages....the hardest (it seems) thing for us humans to do: to learn to forgive. The other hardest thing: to love one another in the first place, not to exploit, so there is less pain caused that requires forgiveness.
My country is one of--if not THE--biggest exploiters. We have no right to preach about forgiveness, who should be asking for it, and doing our best to make repairs.
My hope is that we each will one day see one another as dear simply because we are human. And no longer look upon the other as blood to exploit or avenge upon.
Some people have learned how to do this. If only teachers would step forward now to help....
Posted by: Laura | September 21, 2007 at 09:07 PM
I am sick of it all. At the beginning I supported the end of a dictatorship. However, religion will always be the dictator of this and all muslim countries. Believe as they do or die. They do not want to change; it is the only life they have ever known. You can defeat a country and set up a government but you cannot defeat a religion which rules so completely. It is is an inside job. We need to get out..........NOW! All military...all contractors....they think they don't need anybody and we are "invaders". I am sick of this. I was a teenager in the sixties and lived through the vietnam war. What a waste of life, and now, is this again another waste of life. To die for someone who would kill you in a minute.
Posted by: Linda Spurlock | September 22, 2007 at 12:26 PM
We had--and have--no right to defeat any country. And never any right to defeat a religion. We had no right invade Iraq nor any right now to blame Iraqis for the woe into which they have been cast.
And revenge killings and hatred of the beliefs of others are HUMAN traits, not Muslim ones.
We all must learn how to supplant anger with love, hurt and fear with forgiveness. And for no one is that an easy thing.
Posted by: Laura | September 22, 2007 at 01:44 PM
The key to getting Shi'a and Sunni living and working together again is going to be the Iraqi army, not the clerics. Getting Shi'a, Sunni, Kurds. etc. serving together in military units is perhaps the most important undertaking in Iraq. That's why the US military is pushing so hard for more Sunni's to serve in predominantly Shi'a brigades.
The US military has direct experience with this because they know how difficult it was to "integrate" US military units starting in 1948 - for the previous 140 years African-Americans served in separate units. However with an executive order by the President in 1948, the US military was successfully integrated. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981
Also the polls of Muslim countries show a rapid decline in support for terrorism against civilians, with a couple of exceptions like the Palestinians. It's indicative of how Islam is changing and perhaps there will be even more change as a result of what is being accomplished in Iraq. That's why it's such an important endeavor.
Posted by: Chris Baker | September 22, 2007 at 04:58 PM
Chris, I would like so much to believe in what you are saying. I am afraid that these troops/contractors will be used as election ploys both in the United Stated but also in the unstable Iraqi government. In the blending of multiple islam religions into one country with one army. How long of a period of time is involved?
Posted by: Linda Spurlock | September 22, 2007 at 07:11 PM
who will pay? thats easy!The people will pay!Who else? today its Iraq, tomorrow where? Iran, syria, -Oh, and let us not forget Africa! Anywhere a profit can be made!
The Great God Profit!!!
Posted by: billjpa | September 22, 2007 at 10:02 PM
So many reactions are emotional rants and mea kulpas but the Iraq question is so much more complicated. The US took out Saddam and its hard to stick up for him and his brand of genocide, or to talk about him as the good old days. The Iraqi people have a chance to found a nation and they can if right can prevail. So often religion is used as a means of legitamizing violence and evil. What ever happend to religion? It was once a force for good and now seems to be involved in some much evil and hatred around the world. I know many who have served in Iraq and many speak lovingly of the Iraqis and talk of the middle class and the intellectuals who want to have a nation that encompasses the the two major Islamic sects but it seems impossible. The clerics are blood thirsty and power hungry and the nation seems unable to comprehend how they are being used. I think the troops should leave. They have done so much there that is good (and unreported) but it make not make a difference. The Iraqis have to stand on their own and now. I have hope for them but I know they face foreign forces and truly people interested in the oil wealth. But we cannot ask this young American Army to do more. The UN maybe? Haha no chance there.
Posted by: TomW | September 25, 2007 at 03:09 PM