Shlonkom Bakazay?

You know, a friend of mine from Uni. told me before the latest war...(after she knew all the details of my fear of civil war after the war). She said something like the following (in a matter-of-fact way which was somewhat disturbing at a point when i was in a highly sensitive emotional state, in tatters, if you will)... "if it's civil war than it's civil war. if that is what will help iraq get out of this all-around terrible situation, then come to grips with it." She was correct. And it's taken me a long time to grasp this...Just over the last few weeks I've really made large leaps of thought to comprehend what she said over a year ago. And she's pure Americana. The thing is...understanding a bit more about the complexities of what would happen if there is civil war is a big bite to take. there's one that's drawn by the lines of space, geography. then there's the possibility of a civil war drawn by the line of ethnicity. these are the two possibilities in Iraq and of course they could merge together...space and ethnicity. Aren't they always merging together, though? And of course, the IDEA of being an Iraqi is currently changing and must change. That should go without saying. But perhaps Iraqis must say it. And look, war changes any people...but war aftar war after war after sanctions and alienation from the world, well, i needn't say more. War changes what it means to be a person in that place. Especially a war that was waged in such a manner. Without Britain, it couldn't have happened. That's what I think. I'm veering off-track now....I'll save that for later. where was i...? SO, the idea of civil war erupting in Iraq is the thing that scared me most (after the JDAM 2,000 pound bombs dropping on my family during the serious and relentless bombings of Baghdad). And while civil war in Iraq still does affect me, I've got to accept it if it happens. (MORE on that later...because this needs to be unpacked in order to understand why I've come to this conclusion.) Maybe it will be "the civil war of the roses"...yeah, right. knowing iraqis, being iraqi...no way. so, i'm really frightened. honestly.

Now there's this talk about terrorists wanting to start one...well, sure! but even without those uncivil outkasts of society or "foreign infiltrators", a civil war could start easily in Iraq. BUT REMEMBER, the latest war is what brought almost all of those unhealthy creatures swarming to Iraq. But Iraqis are the ones that are paying the dearest price. Look at what happened today!!! so don't go scapegoating on that matter (i'm saying this to the press, to anybody).

But it's far too easy for me to talk about such matters from so far away. I do have semi-regular contact with my family in Iraq now, so I don't feel so disconnected anymore. (i"m going to do a post on the i-agora soon abt the phone matters in iraq very soon. because i have some questions, and i need to do a bit more research, but it's an important post coming up.)

I'd also like to get into details about the Kurdish issue and how it relates to a possible civil war, soon. But I'll get to that later. Gotta go do some things now.

- peace, lim.