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Iraq the smiling people
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all images © Michele Molinari
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I visited Iraq between the two Gulf Wars. Although the food was scarce, electrical black-outs frequent and poverty was under everybody's eyes, I was struck by the great dignity of the people. Moreover, nobody was showing any resentment toward western tourists, wondering around was easy and enjoyable since the locals were curious and friendly. Many smiles were greeting me wherever I went, fairly unusual considering the rigidity of the regime and the strict rules of the Islamic society, but it is not to be forgotten that Iraq is a secular country. I was in Baghdad, in Mosul and many other places and cities in between. Robert Byron was there in 1933 on his way from Venice to Afghanistan, and in The Road To Oxiana reported that: "The air is composed of mud refined into gas. The people are mud colored; they wear mud colored clothes, and their national hat is nothing more than a mud pie. Baghdad is the capital one would expect of this divinely favored land. It lurks in a mud fog". I cannot disagree on the weather, indeed, but when the mud colored fog dissipated I had visions of some of the most exciting and beautiful archeological sites of the Middle East: Babylon, Ctesiphon, Hatra, Al-Ukhaidhir. This web page doesn't want to be a political statement, even if "every act is a political statement, doing nothing also is". This page simply wants to be an homage to the smiling people of Iraq I met on my trip.
February 2003 |
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Some readings: The Road to Oxiana - Robert Byron The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq - Kenneth M Pollack 2003 Complete Guide to Iraq and the Case Against Saddam Hussein - Department of Defense War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know - William Rivers Pitt Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda - Khidr Abd Al-Abbas Hamzah Iraq: in the Eye of the Storm - Dilip Hiro War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq - Milan Rai Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace - Gore Vidal
Points of View: from Baghdad from the desert, Marine's side from somewhere inside Iraq: Back to Iraq 2.0, a day by day war weblog from Baghdad Salam Pax, the world famous Iraqi blogger: Where is Read? from the International Herald Tribune from The Guardian: War Watch, claims and counter claims made during the media war over Iraq from Shia News:
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a marine tells an iraqi man to back up. april 6th, 2003
"To
announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
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The messages Angela - Feb. 6 Here we come with another absurd supposed chirurgical war. Many would suffer, mostly civilians with nice smiles like those in the pictures. Karen - Feb. 7 It is good to see an alternate view of the Iraqi people. Will we ever see it again in our life time?
Tim - Feb. 7 I was struck by the idea that those of us that have never seen Iraq up and close hardly understand the common people and believe that everybody is a Saddam. And if I could ask the people of Iraq what is their view of him, would it be disgust, fear of maybe even prayers for him exiled? Or do they love him and the ruling government, and just want to go on all their life. Our vision from out here is too far away, and often filtered.
Michael James - Feb. 8 If you were driving along and passed someone in another car who was obviously drunk, swerving dangerously, endangering his own life and the lives of others, would it not be prudent to take steps to stop that person before he killed someone? Or would it be better to do nothing, and simply hope that he makes it home without incident? Saddam Hussein is that drunk: let's get him off the road. He is a brutal dictator, a liar, a cheat. Yes, it is possible innocent people will suffer in an attempt to remove Hussein, but many innocent people have already suffered under his rule.
Robert - Feb. 11 The people in the pictures remind us that most of the time innocents are the actual casualties of war, and it doesn't truly matter if their country is a dictatorship or a democracy. Are the Iraqi people more innocent because they're under the heel of Saddam? Are the American people who died on 9/11 more guilty because they chose a Government that helped to put Saddam in power and sold him weapons of mass destruction when he was an ally? There aren't good wars. Wars are not unavoidable, but they become unavoidable. We, 6 billions people citizens of Planet Earth, are the causalities of a few thousands who decide our fate in the name of their power, they call it Nation, oh God !, and never risk their life for it.
Sem - Feb. 13 Saddam Hussein is a dictator? I agree. USA is some sort of "guns & bible" democracy? I agree. War is necessary once again? I do not agree. I'd like to see the end of all lies, because people are always able to smile but we kill each other since the age of stone. What for? Money? Power? When I watch this reportage I see a real world but I do not feel the taste of money, the real is out there so easy to be reached, out of control of newspapers & "screens". I'm very sorry, but I believe in life, I do not believe in money.
Bert - Feb.14 It seems clear to me that Bush and Blair are mentally ill, war-mongering, morons that should be removed from public office. It also seems clear that the intended war against Iraq is based upon desire for revenge regarding Sep 11th. Sadam Hussein has always been a loose cannon, why all the fuss now ? why is it that the West doesn't need disarmed ? Why is it somehow ok for the West to manufacture weapons and then GIVE them away free to tin-pot dictators ? Sadam Hussein "bought" several billion pounds (Sterling) worth of weapons via the British Government, but he didn't pay for them ! the British tax-payers had to pay for them ! The Government never tells us stuff like that, though, eh ? Maybe if people don't want terrorism, then they shouldn't allow their masters to feed the world with bombs with one hand, and then nefariously interfere with other countries' politics with the other hand. These "masters", ie, supposedly public servants who have been voted into office to serve the public, seemingly never do anything of the actual sort. They just murder people and call it justice. Why aren't the American and British governments committed to world justice ? We are repeatedly told that nukes are good because they create peace. We are told that because of nukes, there has been no major armed conflagration since WWII, yet over 300 million people have died as a result of armed confrontation across the globe since WWII...
Sem - Feb. 18 Yes, I agree: "nukes are good because they create peace" is a total contradiction ... What if peace could create peace (and I'm certainly not a hippie... )?
Sergio Ramazzotti - Feb. 19 I had the chance of seeing some wars with my own eyes in the past years: I have witnessed violence, tears, death, mutilation and endless suffering. But most of all, I have seen something astounding that all innocent victims of a conflict seem to have in common: the extraordinary ability to adapt to tragedy, and conceive it as normal and keep on going, and living, and eating (when there is anything left to eat, that is) and making love and smiling. An old African saying (and only God knows how much Africa knows about suffering) goes: when elephants fight, it is the grass who suffers. I like to think that these innocent people will be able, like our grandparents did in WWII and like everyone of us would if forced to, to cope with yet another bombing by keeping on living, making love, smiling. At least until the day they get killed by an intelligent bullet, of course.
Assbite - Feb. 22 Yes good people! No Good Leader! I am for either assassination or overthrow by the people. I believe we should either be invited by them or the UN should get off there Ass' and enforce what they demanded 12 years ago!!
Charles - March 1 Looks like an honest effort. I just want Saddam dead.
Michael James - March 18 A day before Bush's 48 hour ultimatum is up that Hussein leave Iraq, is there any chance that at the last minute he will go into exile, averting war? Can Hussein seriously expect to perservere in the pending military confrontation? Will what is about to transpire boil down to one man's irrational and inflated ego? Hussein has ruled with ruthless brutality. He is a liar, a cheat, a fool, and up to this point, he has been an extraordinarily lucky man. His luck is about to run out. Has he been hiding weapons of mass destruction? Has he directly or indirectly supported Al Qaeda? Time will tell, and probably sooner than later.
Elisabetta Lampe - March 19 I don't want any war in Iraq, these smiling people have to be preserved from bombs - they have been suffering enough! I'm sure that there are other means to sweep away Saddam Hussein from the scene and that every decision has to be taken by the United Nations, the only institution which represents us all. I'm not represented by Mr. Bush and his war games, I don't share his oil interests and can't admit that he fights "with God's bless". If he really believes this, he's crazy.
Matej Satler - March 20 Does someone has a direct link to Baghdad? I mean a direct e-mail from somebody from Iraq. Because all the News has very different views about the war in Iraq. So I would like to hear news directly from Iraq.
Laura Mulassano - March 22 I've been in Iraq four years ago with a colleague photographer. We traveled for fifteen days, reaching Mosul in the far north, staying in Baghdad, visiting all the important archeological sites, touching Nasyrya in the far south near Basra (Nasirya was bombed and destroyed in the '91 attacks). We had a strong sensation to be among friends, with nice people around, interested in everything we were telling them about our life in Europe and Italy. Those people didn't talk much about Saddam. Maybe they were scared, as it happens when there is a fool dictator around. But we noticed that nearly everybody had a strong bad feeling towards USA and Bush Father and family. And now they have another Bush against them, against the people of Iraq. A Bush less intelligent, less strong, more engaged in bad traffics, more determined to obtain power and oil with the excuse of destroying global terrorism, with the specter of 9/11 over the head. The USA let Bin Laden go away, lost Bin Laden and his friends (unable to find him!)- And then the USA gave all the responsibility of terrorism to Saddam! Saddam has to leave, he is a fool dictator, but the people of Iraq will pay for everything. And we were not able to stop this. I'm ashamed. What is the people of the USA wait to chase this President so far from the right image of a good President of the United States, so far from the image of a John F. Kennedy. The history will give an answer, but all the world is in danger because of Mr Bush.
Sem - March 25 So, USA wanted war and had it at last. It lasts since a week or so, but the US administration is facing the truth: where the heck are those terrible and well concealed "weapons of mass destruction"? If Iraq really still had that, they would make a mass-demonstration during the war! I've only heard of "normal" Iraqi weapons and army up to here... the lies give way to "a certain layer of truth", sooner or later. "... il faut, citoyens, que la conscience reste armée."- Victor Hugo
Jennifer - March 26 I think all this should stop because Iraq is loosing a lot of men and so are the US. I will send my prayer to the family and to the mother of the 2 years old girl who got her head blown off, and I am rally sorry it turned out this way.
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