Notes from Exile
Iraq, Part Of The Wallpaper?
By David Irby
Jul 16, 2006 - 7:04:00 PM

UNITED STATES—I suppose Canyon News readers may think I'm a broken record, the way I keep going on about Iraq.  Indeed, I begin to wonder if there is much of anyone who pays much attention to the plight of that poor country any more. 

Photo courtesy of Google

After all, these days, if a person is in to subjects related to Arabs, Islamist terrorists, and just plain old-fashioned mass murder, he/she/it is spoiled for choice these days.  Just today a real blast from the past called "Hezbollah" (remember them!?!) killed several Israelis and kidnapped two soldiers in South Lebanon.  And, of course, the carnage continues to go on in Gaza, relating to another Israeli soldier kidnapped and lots of rockets are flying at both ends of Israel and lots of innocent people are being killed, both Israeli and Arab. 

But, if a person is really in to high death count, "Mumbai" (formerly known as " Bombay") is the real place to be today.  There terrorists, apparently Islamists whose peeve is the Indian presence in Kashmir, are suspected.  At the last count more than 186 were killed. 

And for others with more exotic tastes, there is the good news that the top "Chechen" terrorist got popped the other day.  That's to do with blowing up lots of Russian kids, for those who have forgotten. 

And, for Americans, there's fun and games on the home front too.  Within the last month a "Black Muslim" group got caught planning to blow up buildings in Chicago. Not a very impressive group of terrorist wannabes, from the sound of things. 

But who knows?  Last year a handful of similarly amateurish homegrown British/Pakistani kids managed to cause real carnage on the London Underground.  And given the chance the "Black Muslim" group might have been similarly lucky in Chicago. 

And apparently more significant still was a foiled plot by people, whom the Feds claim were real al-Queda guys, to flood subway tunnels in New York, while meanwhile, the worst terrorist of them all (Bush) has had to modify his behavior in regard to the (so-called) "detainees" in Guantanamo. 

But is that really a good thing?  I must admit that part of me thinks that everyone should have proper rights.  And it is certain that some of those who have been at Guantanamo have been unjustly held.  And without rights, no one can really know who is a real bad guy and who is not. 

Well, that's what part of me says.  But I must admit that there is another part of me that almost wishes that most of those guys would be given a swim in Guantanamo Bay with concrete waterwings.

But, whatever, with all of these fun and games (including Somalia, which I almost forgot and Afghanistan, where things are getting much worse too), Iraq seems to be getting pushed to the background.  Even when two American soldiers are kidnapped and beheaded, its not top news.  And neither is the really horrific rape and killing of a poor Iraqi girl by American soldiers or the multiple killings by other Americans at a place called Haditha and quite a few other atrocities by our own troops. 

Nor was it really headline news when more than 60 Iraqis were killed the other day.  And how many today?  A person has to dig in the back pages even to hope to find out.  It's mostly Sunnis and Shias killing each other, after all, and who really gives a damn about that?  A-rabs!  Nobody likes 'em anyway! 

I must admit that there is also a part of me that really does feel that way; that wants to blame the Iraqis for causing their own problems.  Move over Ann Coulter! 

But a human being is a human being, and the guys who serve up kabobs down the street are some of the nicest people in my town.  And it was not all that long ago, when it took nothing more than a name like, "Murphy" or "O'Hanlon" to cause a person to get held without bail under the "Prevention of Terrorism Act" in dear old Lunnin-Town.  And I even remember when a certain other group of people was all tarred with the name of " Rosenberg." 

And anyway, whatever about things like the endless conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the reason that IRAQI Arabs are having at each other is that they have been sucked into a trap, which is not of their own making.  It is that of George W. Bush. 

And also, in all such conflicts, its mostly innocent women and kids who suffer.  So please remember who it was who really caused the mess that is Iraq, come November!

Westwood native, David Irby is a writer and social justice activist, who is now based in beautiful Dingle, Ireland. Contact him via newsroom@canyon-news.com