The fake peace

It had been more than four years since I returned back to Iraq. Since the first day I came, the security situation deprived me from doing alto of things that I used to do before leaving Iraqi in 1996. One of the most important things I gave up is visiting my friends at night. When I was in college, I couldn't have time to visit my friends at day, so, I used to visit them at night. Coming back home at 1 or 2 am was something normal in my life. When I came back to Iraq after the collapse of the former regime, I didn't have the chance to visit my friends neither at day or night. I spend all the day working and when I go back home, I have only like 4 hours to spend with my family before going to bed but the most important reason is bad security situation. My neighborhood was unstable for about two years or more. There was sectarian killing, sectarian displacing and other kinds of troubles that I worked hard to avoid.

Two days ago and since Ramadan month started and as we Muslims say its the month of God which means peace must be everywhere, I decided to break to visit my best friend at night especially after the (peace) that my neighborhood enjoys. Don't misunderstand me when I say peace because I'm not talking about real peace that all Iraqis pray to have. The peace we have in my neighborhood is a fake one came as a result of killing and displacing all the families from a specific sect not because the US army or the Iraqi army could control the area, this is the bitter fact I hate to but I must admit.

Now, all the families in my neighborhood are from one sect including a big number of families who were displaced by the other sect from other neighborhoods of Baghdad. Anyway, I left home about 10,30 pm and I arrived my friend's home after 10 minutes or less. While I was walking, I saw some young men gathering near one of the houses and smoking Shisha, also I saw some children playing in the dark streets. When I reached my friend's house, I found him sitting with some young men  near his house and this is a habit of the Iraqi men especially in Ramadan, they don't like to stay home at all and prefer to meet their friends out. We had a conversation for about an hour, he reminded me with our friends who were either killed or forced to leave the area and then he started talking about the problems that his family and the original families in his street face with the new comers and how they miss their old neighbors.

After more than an hour, I returned back home. Although I didn't have the same feeling I used to have 12 years ago but I hope once I would have it again when all the troubles that surround my country vanish.

Comments

[S.M.Javeed]

Yes its very true that we have seen the Sleeping nights into nightmare , made by american forces

[Chris Baker]

Thanks for your blog - I continue to be awed by how Iraqi's maintain such strong faith in the face of such extreme circumstances. Also I wish McClatchy newspapers Baghdad bureau could interview Muqtada al Sadr. General Petraeus publicly praised him in front of Congress for his statement temporarily suspending most Mahdi army activities against the Iraqi security forces and the US military.

Most members of Congress are so scared of the power of the Israeli lobby that they wouldn't dare say something like that in public - instead they kept asking about Iran. However there was a report in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that "U.S. diplomats and military officers have been in talks with members of the armed movement loyal to Muqtada al Sadr." They also said "the discussions have been complicated by divisions within al-Sadr's movement as well as the cleric's public vow never to meet with Iraq's occupiers."

[ljm]

I hope you have that feeling again, too.