At last my heart and mind are at rest, until tomorrow.
I was waiting for a phone call from my daughter to tell me she is home safely.
She, like thousands of university students in Iraq, is taking her mid-term tests, starting today. They have a fixed schedule, i.e. are sitting ducks - for ten days.
Since the beginning of this academic year, the students in her college have been led quite a dance; a deadly dance. The college is situated in an area that has become more like a war zone than a normal neighborhood; it is too near Haifa Street for it to quiet down for more than a few days at a stretch.
They started out by going to college every day. Their college more like a fortress for its security, than an educational facility.
Attack after attack on the surrounding residential area frightened the Dean into improvising a random lecture schedule that allows them to attend their lectures in no pattern that lasts more than one week.
Result: the administrator of the adjoining hospital was abducted, and then killed. Snipers pick inhabitants and students walking from college to hospital or back. One car stops in front of the entrance, lets out one handcuffed young man, waits for him to take a few steps away … and then he is shot, bait, it turned out. Naïve students run to his aid only to be shot at by snipers on a rooftop of a high building in Haifa Street. My daughter was not more than twenty meters away.
Close Down.
Two weeks later.
Students are told to attend lectures at Mustansiriya University campus. A large well protected campus … protected by a militia … where no month passes without an abduction incident … abduction of females that usually ends in rape and murder, in twos and threes.
With heavy heart I am won over by her insistence, and she attends the random lectures for three weeks.
A great big double explosion takes place at the main entrance of Al-Mustansiriya one Tuesday, killing more than 120 students and wounding more than 200, most of whom were female students. One car bomb and one explosive belt … body parts were brought down from the date palms, as were remnants of their uniforms.
Although hurting for all the families that were devastated that afternoon, I thanked God my daughter was not harmed.
At home for another two weeks.
Go attend Baghdad University. Also protected. No way.
All this time studying at home and online, doing her best not to lose yet another year to chaos, she is now taking her mid term exams at her college. A sitting duck.
She is mad to continue.
I am mad to let her.
I read this article, I really wish I could have spoken with the author directly.
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Posted by: generic viagra | April 26, 2010 at 01:44 PM
nothing else will solve the problem but true and intense worship, honor, esteem and value placed most highly on *peace* ... before all else.
peace and justice - not *revenge* but justice. there is a difference.
peace and laws - not lions, leaders, demigogues, godfathers http://www.batteryfast.co.uk or other strong personalities but civil laws that protect an orderly system of justice..
Posted by: laptop | November 25, 2008 at 08:53 PM
What makes my laugh most is when americans or other nationalities says that they're sorry for us Iraqis and they demonstrated against war and bull like that.
how many sorrys will it take to bring a man back to life?
how many sorrys will it take to bring us back home?
how many sorrys will it take to bring my freinds back from heaven ?
so stop giving me your sorrys and do something.
Posted by: Husam J. Abu-zaid | April 12, 2007 at 04:28 PM
Sahar, I keep looking back at this site for news on your daughter. Please know you both are in my thoughts.
Posted by: ljm | February 27, 2007 at 11:28 PM
You may both be mad, but it's a divine madness. Without that light, we all die. Dear God, I hope everything comes right for you, and for all the others who stand with you. Miracles do happen. You're one of them.
Posted by: quixote | February 25, 2007 at 09:42 PM
Hundreds of thousands of us demonstrated against the war before it started. Millions of us have voted for candidates opposed to this war. You're wrong, Monte. There are Americans yes, who are sick with hate. There are Americans who are indifferent and others who are ignorant. Shame on them all. AND there are Americans who know we are in the wrong, and who care tremendously about fighting those who hate and those who are indifferent and ignorant. May people of conscience everywhere reach out to one another. And may we have the sense of hold on to hope and never offer others despair.
Dear fathers and mothers in Iraq: I pray for peace and safety for you and your families.
Posted by: Laura | February 25, 2007 at 09:02 PM
What's to be done? A fire in an apartment near a Boston university kills two students and the city is in mouring. Bahgdad loses hundreds of students a week. And you know what, no one in this country really cares. No one. Not those who want to get out right away; nor those who want to continue. Remember Iraqis, no one in America cares. If we did we would not have invaded your country is such a willy-nilly manner without a concern for the aftermath. Now we stay so a president can save face. Now we kill Iraqia and Americans so a president can pursue his failed dream.
We didn't invade and kill you to help you. We did it because we thought we or our ally might be at risk. But we did not do it for you. We did it for our own selfish interests including maintaining the ability to get your oil.
Those that want to get out don't want to do it for you. They want to save the American kids who are dying over there. They want Iraqi kids to die instead. We mourn our 3,000 plus soldiers; we don't mourn your 300,000 plus civilians.
I wish I had a solution. I pray for your daughter and you and your family. I hope you and she can come through this ordeal safely. The suffering of your people torments me. But what can I do.
No one in power in America really cares about you. They are using you for their own ends. For us it all one big political game, a debate, a debate by selfish people hoping for selfish gains. While you Iraqis suffer, bleed and die we in America watch our silly games and television shows. 3400 people will gather at the Oscars tonight; will one give one thought to your peril? Make peace among yourselves; ask the Americans to go home, build yourselves a better country if you can after what we have brought to you. But don't ever, ever think anyone in America ever cared for you.
My prayers are with you.
Posted by: Monte Fletecher | February 25, 2007 at 08:09 PM
Please let us know about the safety of your daughter. It is understandable that she keeps trying to lead what she can of a normal life, which for her is her university studies.
Posted by: ljm | February 25, 2007 at 05:45 PM
Is it worth what you're paying for it?
Posted by: bjobotts | February 25, 2007 at 04:05 PM
the iraqi people must worship peace.
nothing else will solve the problem but true and intense worship, honor, esteem and value placed most highly on *peace* ... before all else.
peace and justice - not *revenge* but justice. there is a difference.
peace and laws - not lions, leaders, demigogues, godfathers or other strong personalities but civil laws that protect an orderly system of justice..
Posted by: worshippeace | February 25, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Stunned and saddened by what you wrote I can only echo from above...my thoughts are with you and your daughter...may you both be well.
Posted by: Gib | February 25, 2007 at 01:07 PM
Relax: there will soon be a VP vacancy.
Posted by: Stanley | February 25, 2007 at 10:32 AM
My thoughts are with you and your daughter. Thank you for writing.
Posted by: Brookylnite | February 25, 2007 at 10:25 AM
FUBAR
Posted by: Massachusetts | February 25, 2007 at 09:04 AM
Where do we take a stand? Here on the internet? On my street corner? At tax time!
Posted by: vox clamantis in red state | February 25, 2007 at 08:47 AM
And we are mad to let a pack of liars and con artists sack our treasury and hijack our military to such hideous ends.
Take a stand before thousands more are dead and we all have to worry about our children being drafted into a regional war.
Posted by: db | February 25, 2007 at 08:08 AM