Just spoke with my family in Baghdad

Their immigration papers to the US were filed and approved back in the early 70s, yet they always refused to leave Iraq (my uncle's words: "If the road to the US was paved with gold, I will never leave my country") Even under harsh sanctions and the brutality of a ruthless dictator, they always said they would never leave. Not anymore. My last phone conversation with them my elderly uncle begged me to find them a way out. Electricity is on for only 2 hours a day (even during an 8-year war with Iran, the electricity was never out that long), and the markets can't even stock the basic necessities anymore (what is there now costs a fortune.) His children (my cousins) are petrified about sending their kids to school. Going outside to play or socialize is out of the question, as is going to church. My female cousins don't work anymore out of fear, and they, along with my uncle, are nervous wrecks by the time the male members of the family get home from their jobs (they're the lucky ones; unemployment is rampant).

Ah, but freedom is on the march!

is an asshole.

:hug:

Only liberals like you would offer help!

Unless you work for the INS and can push someone's case forward, there's really nothing any of us can do. Since my dad (the uncle is his brother) passed away five years ago, their papers are null and void. You can't sponsor someone who is not an immediate family member. The only way out is to flee to Amman or Damascus, and those cities are already filled with Iraqi refugees. Besides, it's a waste since most countries won't grant the refugees visas. It's really depressing.

So sorry you all have to go through this :( I could put together a care package of necessities, but since the infrastructure is pretty much non-existent I wouldn't know how to get it to them. Is there any way to get them supplies or is it best to go through an aid group?

:hug:

The Assyrian Aid Society (http://www.assyrianaid.org/), which only assists the largely ignored Assyrian community. Plus privately with some people who smuggle in money, clothes, medicine, etc. The infrastructure is not up yet (what a shock :eyes:) so nothing is safe through the mail system.

I wish we could seriously make things better for them...

Sorry to hear about the plight of your relatives. Every time I flip a light switch or turn on the faucet I think of the poor Iraqis that don't have even the most basic things that we take for granted here. And all because of * and his cronies. Let us know if there is anything we can do.

...you must be very worried for them.

Is there any way they could move to Canada and come in to the US via that route? Is that even an option??

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Easy to say when you're not the one paying for it. Just sit back and ask others to sacrifice. My uncle is old (in his 70s). His sons are married and have young children. If they die, who will care for them? And who are they fighting? The American crusaders or the Islamic jihadists? It's a little tough when the country is in chaos and no one knows who is running the show.

Not to mention bombers.

Your definition of "foreign fighter" probably differs from mine.

Maybe her uncle is too old and weak to fight. Maybe her female cousins cannot fight because they don't want to leave their children without a mother. Your answer of "stay and fight" wreaks of a lack of concern for reality.

Have you been over there fighting? My brother has, and he isn't going back, ever, because it's shit.

Eissa, I wish I could help, but I don't know anyone in immigration. Let us know if there is something we can do as a group to help them immigrate.

have a nasty chemical aftertaste?

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"Misinformed," on display in technicolor panavision.

leave this poor lady and her family alone!

If we fail in Iraq.....interesting comment.



If we fail in Iraq we can expect more 9/11's.

has already made us less safe. Terrorism was non-existent in Iraq prior to the idiot-in-chief's little adventure to out-do his dad. Now they have a whole new front.

The longer we stay in that country, the worse it will be for everyone. Bush is still wedded to the Rumsfeld doctrine of running an army of occupation like a Wal Mart. There is no way to salvage this situation. The best we can hope for is a decades long war of attrition.

Remember, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. However, the stink caused by illegal invasion followed by brutal occupation and looting that country is creating the rationale for more cells of desperate, crazed people to duplicate 9/11. This is entirely the fault of the Bush administration.

nation of the United States of America. Once a bastion of freedom of speech, religion and independent thought, in its third century of existence the populace became passive and childlike, surrendering their freedoms in exchange for the barbituates of consumption and authoritarian government. Many historians attribute the acceleration of this decline to a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Although other democracies had previously weathered much greater casualities without sacrificing their constitutional rights (see Blitz-London, 1940-1941), the American public became timid and unnerved in the face of 3,000 casualities on their own soil.
Many Americans eventually became incapable of analytic thought, and could only utter soporifics such as "..or the terrorists win," or "with us or against us" when faced with evidence of U.S. governmental malfeasance in the Middle East.

And you're not even exhausted by wars, shortages, economic sanctions, more war, and occupation with an increasingly bitter anticolonial war emerging.

Not so easy when you apply it to yourself, is it?

he likes the GOP just fine.....

would mean fighting the US and the criminal occupation. Do you call "support" the killing of over 100,000 innocent people? Do you think Allawyi is NOT a dictator and a sadist (who worked for the CIA AND Saddam's secret police)? Do you think that people are NOT being dragged from their houses and imprisoned for no reason, never to be seen again, now? If you believe any of these things, you are IGNORANT and WRONG.
We failed Iraq when we backed Saddam Hussein. We failed Iraq when we pushed them into war with Iran. We failed Iraq when we destroyed their country after telling Saddam he was allowed to invade Kuwait. We failed Iraq when we imposed horrible sanctions which killed 4,000 children a month. We failed Iraq when we destroyed their already battered nation with lies, murdering 100,000 people and more. We have NEVER came to their aid, not now, not then.
If the Iraqi people do not expel this horrible occupation and its puppet government, then a great chance for justice will be lost, and another pet dictator will be set up for America and its greed. When America ends its invasion and occupation, Iraq will truly be free.

The "we can't afford to fail" meme is just an excuse to throw more money and blood down the drain.

All I can think of doing is compiling a litany of testimonials from Iraqis. Compiling all the writings of all the Iraqi bloggers and anyone else and sending them to the International Criminal Court in the Hague is perhaps our only recourse.

In the era of communication at the speed of thought, their eyewitness reports are being completely muzzled. Our supreme court has been rendered useless. The horrible cabal who has co-opted our government is now trying to discredit even further the UN. They also are starting a media assault on Iran for yet another pre-emptive war and the reinstitution of the draft.

Meanwhile, our media would prefer to go on incessantly about one murdered pregnant woman which was undoubtedly a tragedy to those directly involved, but hardly warranted the attention and focus obsessive attention it garnered, especially when pregnant women in Falluja where slaughtered with nary a peep only to be devoured by stray dogs. (excuse that graphic reference but it's true)

The ICC and the global community is our only hope.

Let's get their true stories out there, however we can.

Blessings to your family. Let them know that these bozo's took over our government, much the same as Sadaam.

I'd offer to send them something, but with so little security, I doubt they'd get it.

Please have them send their true stories to you, and forward them to the BBC, and the alternative press and the ICC.

PM me if you need help.

Best

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It'll never happen. We're too powerful to answer to anyone.

And the world's bribed? You mean those that were paid/bullied to join the "coalition of the willing"?

When he was our pet dictator?

Apparently a few of our soldiers have committed crimes against the Iraqis. But let's save the World Court for the big guys.

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and where is the damn gratitude? Typical freeper.

I'd like the link please to where your "Saddam visited Chirac" claim. And why aren't you including all the countries we bribed into joining the now non-existent "coalition"? Turkey, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Solomon Islands....your "president" has done plenty of bribing himself.

Iraqis like your uncle have seen the furnaces of hell ever since the West discovered your oil. Baghdad is home to one of the world's great civilizations. I laugh when people say we have to help Iraqis rebuild. Mesopotamia had harnessed electricity centuries before Thomas Edison conceived of his light bulb. Now you're caught in a grand geopolitical struggle that will take decades to resolve while your 5000 year old heritage is being gutted for profit. We can but hope for a better day when fairness and sanity again directs humanity.

I find myself being continuously shocked at the general devolvement of society. It seems like the patients are running the asylum (domestically and abroad). I have no doubt that the Iraqi people will survive yet another misfortune; I just worry about all the innocents that will be destroyed in the process.

I get deleted for my incomprehensible sense of humor, while these John Wayne types run riot with their macho bullshit. I'd like to see them after they had been through half what this family has been through.

This is a sad, tragic, and all too typical story. I wish I could offer some real assistance.

Best wishes to the original poster, and please tell the people back home that not all Americans are mindless warmongers.

---

No offense to John Wayne.

They can't help themselves, they must continuously justify the atrocity that is Iraq, or their entire self-absorbed little worlds would instantly implode.

na, lets keep 'em here. I laugh at their ignorance. :crazy:

I'm his niece -- you have to be immediate family to file for visa sponsorship. The US Embassy in Baghdad is not taking any applications. The closest ones are in Amman and Damascus, and they're overwhelmed. It takes years for such paper work to be processed. It might be worth the while of those who are young and single, but not for a family like mine. Unfortunately, I know of no other avenue out. It's really lousy to tell someone they have to stay in a war zone. We live just a block away from my kids' school, and I won't let them walk home; I don't know how they do it in the streets of Baghdad. I hate wars.

I feel very bad about your family...we will never be able to wipe away the shame of what we have done to your country.

I lost a best friend because nobody wanted to hire him. He had to go back to Lebanon. He had a Masters' in Business and could not find a job. He had two offers until they changed their mind because they did not want to go through the hassal of the INS. He was telling me that the people in Lebanon are worried because the war machine might want to "liberate" them from Sirea. I really feel bad for him, he is still getting over their civil war. It makes me so mad.

Just feeling helpless. I've never been in a situation where my help has been sought and I can't offer any assistance. It feels lousy :-(

I know how your friend feels. Friends we know from the region, although unhappy with their governments, have made statements like "if democracy comes at the end of a bomb, we don't want it!"

My husband returned to Syria in 2002 to visit family after a 17 year absence. He was pleasantly surprised at the reforms made since his departure. Although we may balk at the slow progress and the many areas of improvement still desperately needed, the people he encountered were happy; the pace may be slow, but they initiated the changes themselves without some world bully forcing them to do it.

...or it may be stupid, 'cause I don't know who your representatives are or whether they're Dems or not, but...
Have you considered taking this up with your Senator and Congressional Reps? This is just the kind of inquiry their constituent offices handle all the time. Maybe they can't help...but it can't hurt to ask.

tell us what public opinion, by and large, is on the US and the occupation? How do people regard the resistance?

They're happy Saddam is gone, yet upset about being occupied. They're really angry about the disruption in basic services that Iraq, despite media portrayal as some backwater country, never had to worry about. They find it hard to believe that the Americans can't get their electricity/phones/water to work. To them this is incomprehensible. And the chaotic situation with terrorists running around all over has made them extremely anxious. As my cousin said, "before we feared the government, and not the people. Now we fear the people and not the government."

for the info!

I fear that many Iraqis, in their haste to find a seemingly comforting hand, will look to the US occupation to help them. This will no doubt lead to their exploitation and further injustice.

I wish your family the best.