Monkey Business
I for one would like to devolve back into a monkey. Given how people have been behaving all over the world, the monkeys seem rather civilized. So I went and tried to join a monkey colony in Zimbabwe, I tried my best to fit in. But despite my best efforts to learn my ho ho ha ha and picking fleece off my brothers and sisters fur, the monkeys faced me with the hard truth and that is that I didn’t fit in. My monkey comrades were very gentle and sensitive in how they broke the news to me. They acknowledged my hard work and said they were impressed with how close I came to becoming one them. Several of the colony members told me that they never felt as close to human as they felt with me. However, a white woman hanging out with monkeys in Africa was causing both the media and the locals to notice the colony and the monkeys were afraid that soon the poachers would follow and that would be the end of their existence. But before we parted, the monkeys left with this single message to convey to the rest of the human race. "Please don't compare yourselves to the monkeys" they asked me to tell everybody. "It insults us when you call somebody a monkey, especially when most of you are not evolved enough for rudimentary basic existence of a monkey". I parted with the monkey colony with tears in my eyes, but then being determined tough Iraqi girl, I decide not to give up and I tried to join a donkey colony in Estonia instead. The donkeys didn't mind me hanging out with them but they were exhausted with my need to constantly express my feelings. It turns out the donkeys are practical animals and they waste no time on expressing things unless it pertains to their existence, like where to find food and how to procreate. So again very gently they asked to leave them and join another species more suitable to my obsessive desire to express myself. The chief donkey also asked me to tell the human race not to compare themselves to the donkeys since again most of us don't have what it takes to be a donkey. My attempts at joining a snake colony in Australia was short lived. The snakes mostly ignored me while I slithered around with them, but I found wiggling around on my tummy as my main form of movement unsuitable for my physical form.
As a child I always loved the show Tarzan, the man raised by monkeys that spends his days swinging from tree to tree, beating his chest and screaming his signature AhhhhAaaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahAAAAAAAA. However I learned that reality does not mimic the rosy American television shows. Maybe if I was raised by the monkeys from childhood things would have turned different. For better or worse I was raised by that mysterious group that is loosely called Humans. So I guess they are stuck with me and I am stuck with them.
My physiatrist says that I need to accept reality and come to terms with my human limitations. But I keep telling him that other people have managed to transform themselves to monsters, so why can't I be a monkey, is that so much to ask for. But those Canadian doctors just don't understand. They lack imagination and don't believe in miracles.
I miss the good old days, about two years ago. Every week we would phone family back in Baghdad and they would always complain about the electricity and water shortages. These days I dread the weekly phone call, because they stopped complaining. The electricity and water didn’t get better, but they just got used to it. Now they have much bigger things to worry about. They are afraid to go out of the house, they are afraid to stay in the house, they afraid for their lives everyday. The worse part is that they stopped complaining. There is just quiet desperation in their voices, they tell us without emotion about the people killed and places bombed and road blocks and other horrors, but they say it in a matter of fact, like it has become normal.
Recently, my husband became a big fan of the Indian movie director Deepa Mehta. Ok! try to forget everything you know about Indian movies, this is a serious movie director who makes movies about real life issues in India. Coincidently she has been living in Canada for the last 20 years. My husband keeps renting her movies which are very well made but painful to watch since they deal with real life issues and frequently don't have a happy ending. The most painful one was Earth. A movie about the breakup of Pakistan away from India. It focuses on a circle of friends, who are mixed (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Parsi). In the course of the movie you see friends seeking each other's blood for revenge based on their race and not their individual actions. The few moderate ones who try hard to relate in human way and refuse to choose sides are labeled as traitors and end up paying the ultimate price.
I groaned in pain as I watched this movie. Mainly because I knew that I was watching the human dynamic of what is happening inside Iraq right now. I should take some comfort that we are not the only nation on earth to be facing this hardship, but still it is hard to bare.
So we all read about the study that estimates that the Iraqi death in the last three years is at 660,000. Some say that number is too high and others say it is too low. I don't know how accurate it is. What I do now is that every single day I hear on the news about more Iraqi people dieing, everyday there are bombs, deaths, assassinations and abductions. All I know from the contacts that I have with people inside Iraq that life has become hell and unbearable right now. So people are asking was the war worth it? Was it better than under Saddam or worse? It seems from people living inside Iraq that the situation today is worse, however it was pretty awful before as well. Compared to horrid situation in Iraq before it would have been so easy to create something at least marginally better, but only the geniuses at the white house could have messed thing up even worse than Saddam rule. The American administration and the American people must be held accountable for their own actions and their mistakes.
"I hated Iraqis" said American soldier, James Parker, when asked to explain why he raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family while serving in Iraq.
"US out of Iraq" say the anti-war crowd. But not a single word about what would happen to the Iraqi population in the aftermath of complete troops withdrawal. Since non of the peaceniks are planning a move to Iraq, I suppose the consequences of what they advocate
on the local population doesn't matter as long as they prove that they were right and the US administration was wrong.
"We must stay the course in Iraq" is a frequent proclamation from the white house. Not a single acknowledgement that the "course" has been an absolute disaster creating the unimaginable "worse-that Saddam" life for the average Iraqi person actually living in
Iraq. I haven't heard a single word of accountability or a plan of some sort that would indicate that the people in the white house have the slightest concern of the daily loss of innocent Iraqi life.
Iraq is bleeding. A very rough ride is ahead of all those living in the country. Not a day goes by without news of deaths and atrocities. Left, right, democrats, republicans and psychopath American soldiers alike, nobody seems to consider the impact of their
actions on those living the reality. Is there a single person in the whole US that is willing to show leadership, leave ideology aside and put forwards a plan or a suggestion with the Iraqi citizen in mind?
However, let us not fool ourselves into this easy and comfortable US is the source of all evil. It is not the fault of the American army that Shea'a are killing Sunnis and Sunnis are killing Shea'a. At the end of the day it doesn't matter whose fault it is and trying to figure our what was better, before or after Saddam. Both are awful. Let us try to figure out what to do about it now. Here we are in this mess. The question we should be asking is "What can we do about it?". Is there any constructive action we can take as concerned citizens that does not entail loss of human life? If somebody has a suggestion, I would love to hear it.
From 786 to 1492, in Andalucía, Spain, there was a time when three cultures-- Islamic, Judaic and Christian--forged a relatively stable (though occasionally contentious) coexistence. Among the weeping fountains, breezy courtyards a long-running tolerance erupted profoundly rooted in the cultivation of the complexities, charms and challenges of contradictions. Through the interplay of all these cultures produced music so intensely beautiful that it takes my breath away and gives me goose bumps each time I hear it.
Flamenco.
We know it can be done, we know it can be achieved. This is not a dream but a reality.
Tolerence, Respect for human life, acceptance of the other
In our culture and history, been done once before, it can be done again.
We study how those managed to achieve it in Spain or we can study the behavior of the monkeys. Who resolve their conflicts in far more peaceful ways than we do.
One day the miracle will happen and we will no longer look at each other for terms to exclude each other from the tribe based on labels or characteristics. Ba'athist, Pro Occupation, Anti Freedom, Not a real Iraqi. But we will look at each other and see terms of inclusion.
Mokey wannabe ihath .... ho ho ho ha ha ha.
As a child I always loved the show Tarzan, the man raised by monkeys that spends his days swinging from tree to tree, beating his chest and screaming his signature AhhhhAaaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahAAAAAAAA. However I learned that reality does not mimic the rosy American television shows. Maybe if I was raised by the monkeys from childhood things would have turned different. For better or worse I was raised by that mysterious group that is loosely called Humans. So I guess they are stuck with me and I am stuck with them.
My physiatrist says that I need to accept reality and come to terms with my human limitations. But I keep telling him that other people have managed to transform themselves to monsters, so why can't I be a monkey, is that so much to ask for. But those Canadian doctors just don't understand. They lack imagination and don't believe in miracles.
I miss the good old days, about two years ago. Every week we would phone family back in Baghdad and they would always complain about the electricity and water shortages. These days I dread the weekly phone call, because they stopped complaining. The electricity and water didn’t get better, but they just got used to it. Now they have much bigger things to worry about. They are afraid to go out of the house, they are afraid to stay in the house, they afraid for their lives everyday. The worse part is that they stopped complaining. There is just quiet desperation in their voices, they tell us without emotion about the people killed and places bombed and road blocks and other horrors, but they say it in a matter of fact, like it has become normal.
Recently, my husband became a big fan of the Indian movie director Deepa Mehta. Ok! try to forget everything you know about Indian movies, this is a serious movie director who makes movies about real life issues in India. Coincidently she has been living in Canada for the last 20 years. My husband keeps renting her movies which are very well made but painful to watch since they deal with real life issues and frequently don't have a happy ending. The most painful one was Earth. A movie about the breakup of Pakistan away from India. It focuses on a circle of friends, who are mixed (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Parsi). In the course of the movie you see friends seeking each other's blood for revenge based on their race and not their individual actions. The few moderate ones who try hard to relate in human way and refuse to choose sides are labeled as traitors and end up paying the ultimate price.
I groaned in pain as I watched this movie. Mainly because I knew that I was watching the human dynamic of what is happening inside Iraq right now. I should take some comfort that we are not the only nation on earth to be facing this hardship, but still it is hard to bare.
So we all read about the study that estimates that the Iraqi death in the last three years is at 660,000. Some say that number is too high and others say it is too low. I don't know how accurate it is. What I do now is that every single day I hear on the news about more Iraqi people dieing, everyday there are bombs, deaths, assassinations and abductions. All I know from the contacts that I have with people inside Iraq that life has become hell and unbearable right now. So people are asking was the war worth it? Was it better than under Saddam or worse? It seems from people living inside Iraq that the situation today is worse, however it was pretty awful before as well. Compared to horrid situation in Iraq before it would have been so easy to create something at least marginally better, but only the geniuses at the white house could have messed thing up even worse than Saddam rule. The American administration and the American people must be held accountable for their own actions and their mistakes.
"I hated Iraqis" said American soldier, James Parker, when asked to explain why he raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family while serving in Iraq.
"US out of Iraq" say the anti-war crowd. But not a single word about what would happen to the Iraqi population in the aftermath of complete troops withdrawal. Since non of the peaceniks are planning a move to Iraq, I suppose the consequences of what they advocate
on the local population doesn't matter as long as they prove that they were right and the US administration was wrong.
"We must stay the course in Iraq" is a frequent proclamation from the white house. Not a single acknowledgement that the "course" has been an absolute disaster creating the unimaginable "worse-that Saddam" life for the average Iraqi person actually living in
Iraq. I haven't heard a single word of accountability or a plan of some sort that would indicate that the people in the white house have the slightest concern of the daily loss of innocent Iraqi life.
Iraq is bleeding. A very rough ride is ahead of all those living in the country. Not a day goes by without news of deaths and atrocities. Left, right, democrats, republicans and psychopath American soldiers alike, nobody seems to consider the impact of their
actions on those living the reality. Is there a single person in the whole US that is willing to show leadership, leave ideology aside and put forwards a plan or a suggestion with the Iraqi citizen in mind?
However, let us not fool ourselves into this easy and comfortable US is the source of all evil. It is not the fault of the American army that Shea'a are killing Sunnis and Sunnis are killing Shea'a. At the end of the day it doesn't matter whose fault it is and trying to figure our what was better, before or after Saddam. Both are awful. Let us try to figure out what to do about it now. Here we are in this mess. The question we should be asking is "What can we do about it?". Is there any constructive action we can take as concerned citizens that does not entail loss of human life? If somebody has a suggestion, I would love to hear it.
From 786 to 1492, in Andalucía, Spain, there was a time when three cultures-- Islamic, Judaic and Christian--forged a relatively stable (though occasionally contentious) coexistence. Among the weeping fountains, breezy courtyards a long-running tolerance erupted profoundly rooted in the cultivation of the complexities, charms and challenges of contradictions. Through the interplay of all these cultures produced music so intensely beautiful that it takes my breath away and gives me goose bumps each time I hear it.
Flamenco.
We know it can be done, we know it can be achieved. This is not a dream but a reality.
Tolerence, Respect for human life, acceptance of the other
In our culture and history, been done once before, it can be done again.
We study how those managed to achieve it in Spain or we can study the behavior of the monkeys. Who resolve their conflicts in far more peaceful ways than we do.
One day the miracle will happen and we will no longer look at each other for terms to exclude each other from the tribe based on labels or characteristics. Ba'athist, Pro Occupation, Anti Freedom, Not a real Iraqi. But we will look at each other and see terms of inclusion.
Mokey wannabe ihath .... ho ho ho ha ha ha.
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
2:39 PMThank you for this. I am one of those "peaceniks" in America who opposed the invasion before it happened. I have advocated the immediate withdrawal of all American forces since the war started.
Your blog, and other Iraqi blogs, that I have been following, has changed my opinion on immediate withdrawal.
I have thoughts on what could be done but they are irrelevant because the politicians and "leaders" insist on pursuing their own agendas.
What I have noted is that the "Iraq Study Group" contains no Iraqis and will present their "plans" for Iraq to Bush and then he will decide the fate of the Iraqi people.
In the end, I believe, the Iraqi people will decide their own fate. I also believe that the majority of the Iraqi people want none of the violence perpetrated on them by demagogues, politicians, profiteers, and criminals. At some point, they will demand to be heard and the madness will stop.
As Gandhi said:
“There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible.
But in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always."
12:03 AM
You are so right.
Everybody is so damn bust trying to prove they were right, that nobody is considering the ramifications on the people themselves.
It is one hell of a pickle, and one that will not be solved before ego gets out of the way.
Coincidentally, this exact topic has come up a lot lately in my circle of friends.
Fantastic post.
4:39 PM
I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that I have read on at least two prior occasions a similar theme to learning:
"that reality does not mimic the rosy American television shows."
Personally, I detest nearly everything on tv today, including college football now that UM lost to OSU. But, I do look back with fondness on some of the "rosy" television programing prior to and during my youth. So, it is with even greater fondness that I state my observation that your conclusion, at least in my opinion, out performs everything American tv ever tried to do:
"One day the miracle will happen and we will no longer look at each other for terms to exclude each other from the tribe based on labels or characteristics. Ba'athist, Pro Occupation, Anti Freedom, Not a real Iraqi. But we will look at each other and see terms of inclusion."
This comment is not a criticism of your post, but a defense of "rosy" programing: yours and tv of old. :)
1:18 PM
I think you'll find it's "Deepa Mehta" (http://imdb.com/name/nm0576548/), Deepak is a man's name.
Next step: Seeing everyone else in terms of inclusion, not just the Iraqis.
5:34 PM
"US out of Iraq" say the anti-war crowd?
Puhleese. I am one of what you would call the "anti-war crowd" and have always detested that slogan. Only a small minority push it and a pain as they are, they actually make up some of the few "peaceniks" who have actually been to Iraq (or live there).
There are so many monkeys to choose from, what colony were you hoping to learn from?
Have you read my (namesake's) book; The Once and Future King?
8:36 PM
Sorry, I usually don't spam like this but thought you'd be interested if you aren't already aware;
"They have a plan for ending the occupation and bringing some UN peacekeeping forces for 6 months to deal with the transitional period. The plan is called "the Iraqi-international roadmap". I think 20 international figures, including Mandela, and 30 Iraqi figures, including Shia, Sunni, secular, and kurdish leaders, worked together to put this "road map". Raed (on his blog about being in the middle as well).
10:53 AM
Dear Ihath,
How did the Kurds in northern Iraq manage to govern themselves? Did they spend several years developing a political culture and institutions, or are they just another clan/tribe/nation/mosque with a dictator telling them what to do?
I read Paul Bremer's book, 'My Year in Iraq.' It was very interesting and I think you would find it so also. BTW, he describes the plan that was for the period immediately following the overthrow of Saddam (which was never implemented).
Later...
12:09 PM
Hi,
Why do you assume that people who say "out of Iraq" necessarily mean a complete withdrawal over a few days/weeks?
Obviously, the Coalition of the Willing has to go (everyone realizes that by now) and the point of the peaceniks is that they have to set a deadline or timetable for their exit: otherwise there is no way to stop the insurgency (and it may not stop anyway as it has become intertwined with mindless sectarinism).
You are not really proposing a solution other than "give peace a chance" or "why can't we all get along". Since US forces are not doing much to stop the sunni/shia violence and are only really fighting insurgents attacking them, they may as well leave: it would deflate the external backers of the insurgency which also spills over into sectarian violence.
Although you are right, people must eventual decide to treat other with respect and reject violence, there is no real solution that involves coalition troops being permanently present in Iraq. Iraqis have to solve their own problems and yes they will need outside help at least initially. But eventually the country will have to stand on its own or disintegrate. The horse has already left the stable in Iraq (George Bush already opened Pandora's box), so what can anyone do--its already too late for all the dead people?
I would also suggest that the US has not been an idle bystander on the sectarian violence but an active instigator: it would fit into the modus operandi of US foreign policy. Now that the two groups are slaughtering each other, no one can reasonable demand an immediate withdrawal of foreign troops can they? Something to think about (it's only a theory).
1:56 PM
Speaking of monkey business, Ihath:
"The man-monkey conflict is intensifying in India, but Hindu faith rules out gorilla warfare."
See http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/134512.html
Later...
5:58 PM
"Out of Iraq"
I'm not sure just who you think you are addressing, Anonymous.
The main flaw with slogans that go "Troops out of Iraq" "US out" etc, is that it sounds ideologically weak. It sounds as though someone who supports some armies but not other’s, made it up.
The second flaw is that it does not really propose a clear and final solution (like "No war" does). It comes across like a demanding childish order, which is unfortunate.
The third flaw is that "Troops out" is too specific and not nebulous and all encompassing enough.
The fourth flaw is that it does not address the main problem - which is that there should be no troops at all, anywhere.
Semantically, "Troops out" accepts troops in a disturbing subtle way. It is a chant based on an idea that troops are inevitable; that we can order them in and out, when and where we want. Which is just, all wrong.
One day I remarked to someone who had just spent a busy half hour chanting "Troops out", that I didn't think it was going to get the troops out as quick as other ways might. I said it might make admin up on high stubbornly determined to keep troops in Iraq. He replied "yes, and then we win". Which struck me as an utterly mindless concept - winning and loosing, as if the carnage didn't matter.
I could go on and on and on but won't.
9:54 PM
Future King,
I don't support anyone's army in particular and I have the right to make "childish orders" if I like--no one is obligied to obey them! [This is just a blog comment.]
I think any message needs to be specific and direct and not nebulous, vague and or too grand/delusional. In my opinion, "No war" is even lamer than "troops out" because at least one knows how to accomplish the latter. If not, please share with me your grand "no war by 2025" plan.
I don't believe troops are inevitable and I don't buy into your argument that saying "troops out" means I want them in somewhere else or under different circumstances or that I like the idea of troops moving in and out of various places.
Most importantly, you have failed to give an alternative to "Troops out". Perhaps you would like to suggest "Troops maybe", "Troops not at the moment", or "Troops lets all stop fighting and be friends"?
Roadmaps to nowhere are a waste of time: get the war machine out and the war might have a chance of stopping. They tried (despite warnings not to do it), they failed (wildly predicted and foreseen) and now they should leave. Iraqi's can pray that they will also pay for some of the damage they caused.
There is no clear and final solution: please let your eyes see instead of pausing to comtemplate semantics.
10:56 PM
Anonymous we're treading on thin ice here (you know the blog owner prefers 100 percent of our adoration over chit chat among the rabble).
"No war" is more appealing then "Troops out". "Troops out" tends to make even the most hardened a-political peace activist snigger up a sleeve (I mean come on, who designed the placard if it has "Troops" in caps on it and is printed red?).
"No war" on the other hand is one of those universal expressions that can be emblazoned on a slab and still have relevance thousands of years later. Imagine if you were to be digging up our history and you found a fossilised placard reading "Troops out". What would it mean to you? It looks like an unfinished sentence doesn't it - troops out of where, whose troops, why? It would be a bit puzzling. But if you found something that said "No war" - you could still found a whole spiritual truth on it.
It goes without saying that we don't want troops anywhere if want "No war".
There is no need to overstate the obvious, people are more sophisticated then that. People shouldn't need to have the kind of directives you punch into a computer program. "Troops out" tends to assume stupidity - that people have no minds of their own and need every movement dictated - walk this way, walk that way, as if people could ever be orderly and would even think of doing something just because we demand it!
The only reason you changed your slogan from "No war" to "Troops out" was because the Saddam statue got pulled down and Bush said the war was over - more fool you. You should have kept to "No war" instead of allowing yourself to be swayed by the media. A lot of us were still completely fine with carrying on "No warring" then and we still are now. I don't see that kind of broadly appealing commitment behind "Troops out".
You do have the right to make childish orders, but people are far less likely to obey them. You do want the war to end, don't you?
I'm sticking with "No war".
10:28 AM
The Islamists are different than the Vietcong. When we left Vietnam, the Vietcong stayed in Vietnam (busy with their genocide -- a benefit of 'troops out'). The Islamists are not staying, they are coming to kill us. 9/11 happened before war in Afghanistan and Iraq. When we leave, they will not stay. So 'no war' or 'troops out' is just hot air.
There will be war and troops somewhere, because I and many others will not submit to them. We choose to martyr them rather than submit to their devilish Islam.
The Islamists will be at war with us for a long time. Your responsibility is to choose where the martyring takes place, while you still can. Where do you prefer? In your backyard, or in theirs? They prefer yours, of course. I prefer theirs. 'No war' and 'troops out' will invite them to yours and we will have to martyr them right outside your home on your doorstep.
Later...
8:49 PM
Hi,
This is my last comment, promise. I didn't change from "No War" to "Troops Out"--why would one need to choose? They are not incompatible, but you seem to assume they are. I would propose that the latter must occur before the former, that's all. How can you want "No War" and _not_ want the "Troops Out" [and then gone]?
Here is an interesting story on this subject: http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon12052006.html
As for Mr. Martyr: there was no islamist threat in Iraq before the US-led invasion (just a secular brutal dictator, Hussein). Have you stopped to consider whether yours is a self-fulling prophecy? Oh, let the troops stay and continue leveling towns and bombing people--that's the sure way to stop Islamists by inspiring them to death. Everyone knows you add fuel to make a fire burn itself out.
9:50 PM
"Everyone knows you add fuel to make a fire burn itself out."
Then why, Anonymous, am I left with the feeling you are hoping someone will throw another log on?
In any case, it is settled. We both agree "No war" is the superior slogan.
2:53 PM
A note to the moderator:
How can anyone title a post "Monkey business" and then turn moderation on?
!!!
3:15 PM
How can someone call himself "not anonymous" and provide no email or link or a first name?
This is not the blog of logic, this is the blog of ihath.
5:51 PM
Excellent post! Your prose is both compelling and powerful. I also am an American who has determined that this war has turned into a disaster. I am greatly saddened by the lost of life on all sides. It just reinforces my belief that diplomacy is almost always the best way to resolve conflicts. I wish you and your family in Iraq a better future!
7:41 PM
How can someone? Well as they do say, there are known unknowns and there are unknown unknowns, things we know we know and things we don't.
Laugh with me - giggle. We haven't much left otherwise, the world as it is.
5:09 PM
From 786 to 1492, in Andalucía, Spain, there was a time when three cultures.... Things went even better in Sicily under Emperor Federic II . (I am just a by-passer due to sore-throat at deep night, should you perform French can can at Eve's party, notify please) - Strudel
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