Riverbend leaving Iraq

[Barrett808]

Source: Riverbend

The Great Wall of Segregation...

...The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of "Shia areas" and Shia out of "Sunni areas".

I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq's history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven't been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?

Read more: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#8633937213645733275#8633937213645733275

[Greeby]

1. Kick, hope she makes it out safely nt

[MADem]

2. Well, there goes a brilliant source of info, but I hope HER (edited) famiy chooses JORDAN

There are so many more options for them, if they seek a follow on nation for asylum, from Jordan.

Since last summer, we had been discussing it more and more. It was only a matter of time before what began as a suggestion- a last case scenario- soon took on solidity and developed into a plan. For the last couple of months, it has only been a matter of logistics. Plane or car? Jordan or Syria? Will we all leave together as a family? Or will it be only my brother and I at first?

After Jordan or Syria- where then? Obviously, either of those countries is going to be a transit to something else. They are both overflowing with Iraqi refugees, and every single Iraqi living in either country is complaining of the fact that work is difficult to come by, and getting a residency is even more difficult. There is also the little problem of being turned back at the border. Thousands of Iraqis aren't being let into Syria or Jordan- and there are no definite criteria for entry, the decision is based on the whim of the border patrol guard checking your passport.

An airplane isn't necessarily safer, as the trip to Baghdad International Airport is in itself risky and travelers are just as likely to be refused permission to enter the country (Syria and Jordan) if they arrive by airplane. And if you're wondering why Syria or Jordan, because they are the only two countries that will let Iraqis in without a visa. Following up visa issues with the few functioning embassies or consulates in Baghdad is next to impossible.

So we've been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive.....

[Roland99]

5. *her* family, you mean.

:)

[MADem]

6. Ooops, you are quite right. I will correct and thank you. NT

[meldroc]

16. Question: Is that wall that was going up around that Sunni neighborhood started construction again?

I thought that after the outcry about that wall that construction had been stopped. Has it started up again? I wouldn't put it past the Bushies to stop construction based on the outcry, wait until a few news cycles pass, then start building again when nobody's looking.

That wall is a Bad Thing. You think it's going up to protect those Sunnis? No, it's going up to imprison those Sunnis. Think Warsaw Ghetto. Not only can they keep the Sunnis in, they can throw more Sunnis in (for their protection, of course) and prevent things like food, water and medical care from going in.

[Ghost Dog]

30. Good questions. And be careful with that 'Ghetto' word/concept.

It's very fucking powerful.

[Igel]

32. It's being modified.

Barbed wire and lower concrete blast barriers. You can get through, but only if you really want to kill some Sunnis or Shi'ites.

Both sides hate it because (1) it implies Sunnis can't protect their own, (2) prevents Shi'ites from harrassing Sunnis (the actual state of affairs) and (3) prevents Sunnis from harrassing Shi'ites (the desired--by Sunnis--state of affairs).

Yes. Cynical. But in matters of pride and revenge, that's how to bet.

[partylessinOhio]

3. Truth out:

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward.

What have you done to Iraq, Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Neocons?

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

13. Liberated it!

This young woman is just ungrateful! Before we got there, she was personally locked in one of Saddam's many torture facilities. That is, until we freed her. She's now decrying the US because she was so warped by Hussein's evil mind control, she now hates freedom. It's sad, really. Poor little terrorist girl. *shakes head



(the following post was sarcasm)

[Betsy Ross]

4. K & R

Wishing Riverbend, and all Iraqis, safety and comfort.

[aquart]

7. May they all survive.

As bad as its been, being an unwelcome refugee isn't going to be fun.

We did this to her.

[Cookie wookie]

28. No WE didn't, THEY did: bush, cheney, rumsfeld, the neocons,

the so-called "christians" who voted them into office, the bigots, the small-minded, the evil, the greedy, the corrupt, the war mongers, the torturers, and most especially those in the press who collaborated to make and maintain this monstrosity.

We did everything we could to stop it from beginning to end, didn't we? We've protested, marched, held vigils, written letters & editorials & pleas & expose's, we've voted as if it counted and donated our money, we've talked and planned and strategized, we've emailed and phoned and faxed, we've educated ourselves and others. We've stood on street corners with signs (I'll never forget the couple in the cadillac who slowed by the curb to say to us, "All we are saying is give war a chance." That really happened folks.

We've worked and cried our hearts out, emptied our pockets, fought to get our elections back.

This is a reminder of WE THE PEOPLE, from the "red" state of GA no less:

http://www.gaforverifiedvoting.org/old_images/sheehan_vigil/pages/DSC02002.htm

To Riverbend, whom I have loved and grieved over, peace be with you and your family on your journey to a new home and life.

[Book Lover]

8. "There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country,

simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming."

Hearts and minds, folks. Hearts and minds...

[donkeyotay]

9. God save us from the next thing we all "know"

It is now accepted fact here that we can't stop the Sunni and Shia from killing each other. We all "know" that they have been at each others throats for "thousands" of years. O'Reilly? How come this then:

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

It is another consequence of a war that no one plans to get us out of any quicker than they did Vietnam. Even when Little Boots leaves office, the full cost of his fiasco will not be known. He has a lot of nerve to say, "if this or that, then there'll be defeat". The defeat, the disaster, the loss, it's all baked in. Bush accomplished it already. Now we're just negotiating terms as to whether it will be a glancing humiliation or a fatal blow.

[meldroc]

18. Blame folks like Negroponte and his death squads.

The Bushies want this war. They want the sectarian violence - they go by the adage "divide and conquer." So they do a few false-flag death squad killings of some Shi'as, blaming it on Sunnis, then they do false-flag death-squad killings of Sunnis, blaming the deaths on Shi'as. Throw in things like the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, and they can get everyone hating each other.

[scarletwoman]

22. Spot on! People need to understand the TRUTH about this "sectarian violence", it was purposely

set in motion by the bushies.

They even had an official name for this operation: "The Salvadoran Option".

See this news article from Jan. 8, 2005: ‘The Salvador Option’

The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq

Jan. 8 - What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are," one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency—as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time—than in spreading it out.

Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras.

I hope people will go read the whole piece -- in case they missed noticing this 2 years ago.

sw

[psychopomp]

29. Yes, mosque bombings are highly suspect

notably the destruction of the dome at he al-Askari Mosque which has been said to have been the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Its destruction triggered the internecine conflict we have today.

[Ghost Dog]

31. Escucho (I hear), scarletwoman.

Leo (I read), luego soy (therefore I am).

:grr:

http://imgred.com/

[ninkasi]

36. Es la verdad

Go with God, Riverbend. It doesn't matter what name we use, it's the same deity that billions pray to.

[AzDar]

10. George W. Bush is a war criminal. n/t

[wtmusic]

12. Amen, and may he one day be prosecuted as such nt

[ohio2007]

11. Riverbend went back into Iraq ? She left once before

I haven't followed her blog in a long long time but I thought her husband took her to Beirut or maybe it was Kuwait.

[shrdlu]

37. Husband?

First time I've noted the mention of a husband. She has written of her parents, her brother, and aunts and uncles.

I am surprised. Is there a reference?

[otherlander]

14. Hope she finds somewhere safe. This quote in her blog...

"... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend..."
Is it from a song?

[Barrett808]

38. It's from a poem she wrote

iirc.

[otherlander]

39. It's beautiful.

:cry:

[Ghost Dog]

15. Perhaps get out a whisper, from here, to the right ears

guarding those frontiers:

Riverbend is special. Let them through.

[alfredo]

17. I hope she comes here to celebrate the fall of

King George.

[tblue37]

19. She made me cry. (eom)

[ShamanaSZ]

20. Good luck!

I hope she makes it safely and leads a good life wherever she's going. Her piece this time was particularly strong and saddening.

Good luck, River!

[wryter2000]

24. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[brer cat]

21. me too! She has been such

a wonderful, yet tragic voice through this entire madness. I pray that she will have a safe journey and find peace.

:cry:

[wryter2000]

23. That's so sad

She and her family have been so brave. I would have slunk away long ago. Still, having to leave her country....it's so unfair. :cry:

[davhill]

25. I am relieved she is at least still alive

Like many of us I was worried she had become one of the nameless statistics we read daily. Wherever she goes I hope she will remain a voice of reason and common sense in the madness this world has become.

[aaronbees]

41. I'm relieved too

I've always been concerned for her and hoped she stayed safe. Her assessment of the situation in Iraq will really be missed, but I can understand the will to be in a safer place. :(

[Jacobin]

26. Good God

If people like this blogger can no longer stay, Iraq is going to be left with no one other than the warring factions. The middle class is apparently either killed or has left.

Goddamn the idiots who voted for this, republican and democrat alike. goddamn them to hell.

[mnhtnbb]

27. Hope her family makes it out okay. I've been watching for a post

from her for weeks.

War and disaster make common bedfellows. We have our own population
of people who lost everything in Katrina. No more baby photos. No stuffed animal you've had since you were a baby. No more cherished instruments.

Starting over is very, very tough. I wish her well.

[Dangerman]

33. God speed on Riverbend

Her torment in "liberated" Iraq is too much to bear.

I wish George W. Bush can go F*ck himself!

[MadMaddie]

34. I hope Riverbend and her family make it out safely...

When the mention of the walls came up...the first thing that came to my mind was "Warsaw Ghetto".

<snip>
In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps dropped the population of the ghetto from an estimated 450,000 to 37,000.
<snip>

She and others should escape while they can because if those walls are completed the Iraqi's that are stuck on the wrong side of the walls will suffer the same horrors as the Jewish population during WWII...
Of course the deportations to concentration camps won't occur, but the daily car bombs, drive by shootings, suicide bombers accomplish the same thing don't they?

Who was the idiot that came up with the wall idea...we should put his ass inside the walls that he thought were a good idea.

[burrowowl]

35. I hope that when she and her family are safe

she can continue to inform us and give us her news and insights.
God speed Riverbend!

[Frustratedlady]

40. May I echo your sentiments?

I hope Riverbend and her family are able to find happiness, wherever they go. I'm so ashamed of what we've done to them.

[mntleo2]

42. Thank Negroponte, Dear Riverbend

...death squads follow him wherever he goes, the ghosts of torture and agony wafting up from South America that echo in the ether from when he was there. As did the rape and murder of nuns, the burning of villages, the fleeing people, crying babies with no mothers ~ and war, lots of war. Flee Dear Riverbend and tell the world what you saw because there are people who listen, but there will be decades to pass before the world will sadly shake its head and say it was wrong. I am sorry and ashamed for what my country has done to you, as I was 25 years ago when Negroponte micromanaged the extermination of entire villages. Many of us tried to stop it but the likes of Negroponte who never paid for what he was responsible for what he did over two decades ago, he brought the hounds of death with him to your country with the blessings of his mass murderer com padres, Rumsfield, Bush and Cheney.

Flee dear Riverbend! I am so sorry, oh how I wish I could have stopped it! I speak for millions of Americans who tried to speak but were told we were not worth listening to because we were too stupid and unpatriotic. The media machines helped while sitting at the feet of these murderers and profiteers that suck at the teat of misery.


Cat In Seattle

[Ghost Dog]

43. So, could some wider publicity of riverbend's case be potentially useful

to her and her family in their exodus, or possibly dangerous?

I confess, I have already attempted to alert The Guardian to the 'story'...

ed. (This thread needs just a few more recommendations to hit DU frontpage, I think, BTW).