Yesterday I went to the bank.
Wow! I thought. So many people!
Iraqis are not “bank oriented” people, if they have any excess; they tend to keep it at home.
Previous experiences have taught us not to trust banks; they have been known to hold on to your money when you need it in a jiffy!
But looking at the numbers inside that bank, I thought, “I have been out of touch; bad girl.”
I go in, only to find people pushing and shoving one another; fighting, shouting and cursing each other. “This is not normal,” I said to myself.
I try to reach the employee with whom I have business, but my efforts are to no avail. One human current pushes me this way and another pulls me that. A proper riot!
I began to have serious misgivings.
“What is this all about?” I asked a lady who was trying, in vain, to keep from being crushed between two men, to my right, “Have you got any idea?”
“Where do you come from? Don’t you know that the government is giving people relief? At last we are remembered!”
“Really!! That’s excellent!!” It was my good fortune to be at the bank this day! Although half suffocated, I felt elated at being “remembered”. “How much?”
“10 000 Dinars!” (Equivalent to $7.75, purchasing power: 50 eggs).
….. Numbness.. …..
Fighting ….. Rioting ….. Flayed nerves and hot tempers flying ….. for 10 000 Dinars.
Where do I come from?
How many thousands have been decommissioned?
How many thousands were in Saddam’s army, police and intelligence agencies?
Thousands of others – professionals - dismissed from their government jobs on pretext of debathhification?
Yet more thousands displaced; and more still terrorized into a futile stay-at-home existence??
Riots in the bank for ID 10 000, $ 7.75.
And for $100; what would they be prepared to do?
For $500?
For $1000??
How many will cross that line? It’s not easy to see your family starve for principles.
Mercenaries on Iranian payroll.
Mercenaries on American payroll.
Mercenaries on ANY payroll.
Hear! Hear! An army for a pittance. Gather yea all, who have an interest to participate in this charade. Stakes are high! All of Iraq is the stage.
do you want americans to leave tommorrow?
Bill
Posted by: bill | March 19, 2007 at 11:39 PM
As Iraqis lose their lives, Americans are losing their souls. We've become the very thing we've stood against for generations. I have nothing but heartache for the Iraqi people and scorn for those who enabled our government to become the beast that it has become today. The Bush administration is not THE problem with America today, only a symptom.
Posted by: Dave Fisher | March 13, 2007 at 04:11 AM
Referenced this posting on my own blog: http://thegroundtruth.blogspot.com/2007/03/riots-for-775.html
cheers
Posted by: Matteo Tomasini | March 06, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Well, I'm so sad to hear the state in which Iraq is in, the Iraqi people deserve better than this! But all I can say is that Iraq will sure rise up again and regain its title as the Capital of Science and Prosperity in the Middle East.
Posted by: Ihab | March 03, 2007 at 04:26 AM
I can't begin to tell you what a source or embarassment these Bush supporters are in what they've been writing here. It is true, we do have ugly Americans here. It's the reason we couldn't get Gore elected in 2000 and Kerry elected in 2004. The reasonable group finally won the majority in congress and the senate in 2006. I hope they find their way to reign in Bush with their new found power very soon. That there will be the regional meeting with the US, Iran and Syria at the table is a sign Bush is having to give in and do things he swore he'd never do before. I hope this meeting on March 10th brings something good for the people in Iraq. Be safe, whatever it takes, keep on keeping on.
Posted by: ljm | March 02, 2007 at 12:38 AM
Nimwits like fiftycal aside, Americans are beginning to wise up to the fresh hell Bush has unleashed. Whether that brings any empathy for the Iraqis upon whom Bush has unleashed this hell?? That will be slower in coming.
Posted by: Lilybelle | February 28, 2007 at 09:46 PM
Don't worry honey. The dimorats will soon take complete ownership of the occupation and defund the war. I'm sure they are hoping for another situation where the last U.S. personnel have to take off from the roof of the embassy. Then the shiites and sunnis can have their civil war. And if you don't want your $7.75, you can send it to me.
Posted by: Fiftycal | February 28, 2007 at 06:57 PM
Don't worry honey. The dimorats will soon take complete ownership of the occupation and defund the war. I'm sure they are hoping for another situation where the last U.S. personnel have to take off from the roof of the embassy. Then the shiites and sunnis can have their civil war. And if you don't want your $7.75, you can send it to me.
Posted by: Fiftycal | February 28, 2007 at 06:57 PM
Neither Bush nor America are responsible for Iraq's woes. Saddam and Middle Eastern politics are. Both America and Bush are helping though politics in the US distorts this fact. Just because someone expresses the difficulty of their situation, it doesn't mean that America or it's president is responsible for that difficulty.
Posted by: caesarshadows | February 28, 2007 at 05:54 PM
Disbelief,
I feel that same sense of powerlessness and I am an American.
I am truly ashamed of the leadership of my country and the apathy and complacency of many of its citizens. I read the accounts on this blog every day and am overcome with sorrow and loss.
Not only the loss of the innocent Iraqi people caught up in this madness, but the loss of the American people to speak out against their leadership.
We are not all rotten.
Posted by: marlee | February 28, 2007 at 01:54 PM
I have seen the same sort of pushing and shoving "riot" behavior in lines of people waiting for bread. This happened in Armenia in 1992 when they couldn't get wheat.
What happened to the missing Iraqi billions? Your leaders should be held to account for all the missing money. Someone needs to find out from Chalabi where it went.
Keep on keeping on over there, we are all thinking about you in Iraq.
Posted by: ljm | February 28, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Dear Permalink,
I live in the U.S.A. but I am not American.
I have been reading accounts of your existence this past week and I am so appalled. I feel such a sense of powerlessness. It seems that Satan has literally set up camp in Iraq. I have witnessed your people's grace and beauty in the video/web blogs and I must say that this is the reason you're being attacked. Truly America is rotten to the core, a majority of it's people are willingly
blinded by the controlled media. I pray for you and your family now and I ask that God intervenes on yor part. I don't knbow why God doesn't just wave his hand at the occupiers and remove them from your land.
God bless you and your family.
Posted by: Disbelief | February 28, 2007 at 11:53 AM
No more of this pathetic excuse for leadershit. w must go.
Posted by: vox clamantis in red state | February 28, 2007 at 08:23 AM