If They Want To Leave, They Will Need A Helicopter

A view of life outside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone By Naseer al-Zubaidi Azzaman, August 5, 2006 All over the world people have the chance to give their dead a proper burial but in Iraq. Iraq is perhaps the only country in the world where the dead are denied this privilege. But the dead are not the only ones who suffer. Iraqis who are still alive fare no better. We who are still alive lack the basic means of living. We enjoy no stability. There are no public services. We enjoy none of the amenities which people across the world take for granted. Therefore the Iraqi people are closer to death than life. We can safely say Iraqis are walking shadows. They are dead but still can use their legs to walk and their lungs to breathe. Walking and breathing are no longer a blessing for Iraqis. If they walk, they will most probably end up victims of a car bomb attack, a stray or deliberate bullet from a passing U.S. convoy or hostages of a murderous criminal gang. If they walk, they will most probably run into a check point manned by murderous militias. They will have no chance to survive if the militia men discover they are members of the opposite sect. Breathing fresh air is no longer a pleasure in Iraq because simply there is no more fresh air to breathe. All over Baghdad it is the smell of death, explosions, car bomb attacks, raids and bombing that fills the air. Some might say that I am a real pessimist for depicting such a gloomy picture of conditions in Iraq. They may be right. And I fully understand their attitude and know exactly what they have in mind. They are certainly referring to the few Iraqis who live together with their U.S. masters in the Green Zone in Baghdad which the U.S. occupiers have ringed with massive anti-blast walls. This zone, created by U.S. marines following their invasion of the country, is the only spot in Iraq which is relatively safe and secure. U.S. administrators and their Iraqi lackeys who run the country rarely venture outside this zone which the U.S. has turned into something like a citadel of reinforced concrete with several security barriers. It is tragic to see that those supposedly working for the welfare of the Iraqi people, planning its future and laying down the foundations of a ‘new Iraq’ are so concerned bout their own safety and well-being at a time the whole country is burning. The zone the U.S. has created in Baghdad to protect its administrators and Iraqi lackeys is the prison which the U.S. has built for itself in the country. Those working, sleeping, drinking, eating, swimming and playing golf in the zone have become the enemies of the Iraqi people. If they want to leave, they will need a helicopter because they do not belong to the people outside the zone. Those inside the zone know they are unwanted by the people outside the zone. For this reason they do not feel secure among the people they claim to serve and love. These are our governing elites – the U.S. and its lackeys – who have practically lost all contact with the people they are supposed to serve. markfromireland