"Expectations and evaluations of two years of occuberation"

The evening of April the 9th 2005 marks the second anniversary of the time when I jumped up and down and started congratulating families and friends for the fall of the statute in Ferdows Square in Baghdad. The statute which turned our lives into miseries and created a new sister river for Tigris and Euphrates and called it River Blood.

Expectations were very high and long-term dreams of seeing the missed ones again lost in the Anfal genocide campaign, a rapid democracy and prosperity, new mentality towards granting self determination rights and many more dreams never came true.

The missed relatives were never found, neither dead or alive. They were gone with the hundreds of thousands of innocents who contributed to the River Blood created by the evil of the damned statues.
Perhaps the word "occuberation" in the title puzzled you. It is not a spelling mistake, neither a new word in the Oxford Dictionary. It shows the mixture of feelings in a region torn and shattered by centuries of wars.
The war which divided the world a couple of years ago, has divided the people of this region as well. Some call it liberation, and others occupation, and hence the word "occuberation".

The "liberation" word users were a vast majority in the start of the war. But when the unexpected happened and the battled for hearts and minds was lost , the destruction of history occurred, unnecessary force was used against civilians, the horrendous Abu Ghreb scandal was unfolded, and many more incidents resulted in a defeat of "liberation" word users.

Unfortunately the beauty of the liberation was stolen by its owners. Sadly, the liberators did not respect the word itself, and in response, the goddess of liberation punished them and us and all.

But despite all the imperfections of the liberation, and all the downsides of the occupation, the event of 9th of April 2003 should have happened a decade if not decades before.

I can not speak for all Iraq, but in Kurdistan, the people are thankful to the international world lead by United States and Britain and call them liberators, though from bitter past experience, they ask that betrayals should never be repeated, and silence should never be the answer to dictatorship regimes. Just in Kurdistan in the last two years, two new airports have been built, the economy has quadrupled, and most importantly, people are happier. Many more achievements have taken place which if without the event of 9th of April, they would have never been there. I am sure that southern Iraq has also seen major signs of prosperity and democracy.

The good news is, that the event of 9th of April 2003 has brought democracy to the region, the bad news is, anticipating to that democracy is very difficult. An Islamic state should not emerge, certain religious people should not have the authority to rule behind the shadows, women should not be mistreated and many more concerns.

The liberators have had a tough two years, the mission is not complete yet.Helping in rebuilding the shattered lands would definitely be a positive step in winning hearts and minds and give back the beauty to "liberation", a word lost its meaning in the battle to achieve the word itself.


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p.s. I got many emails asking me to comment on the first Kurdish president in Iraq, as Kurds say, on my eyes "baserchaw", that is next.