Do you read the blogs written by ordinary Iraqi citizens?  If you don’t, I encourage you to do so.

The voices shatter my soul. The stories capture a reality no human being should endure.

And as Iraq sits on the brink of civil war, I think how unfair life is. Here I sit in a highrise in the middle of Manhattan and 18 hours away . . .

Everytime I read one of these testimonials to courage I remind myself that we are all Iraqis.

Then as Mr. Bush bloviates at every turn in the road, “don’t bet against freedom”, I think when is someone going to tell him, don’t bet against the Iraqi people.

So, read the truth about the Iraq war. Read about the freedom we’re bringing to Iraq.

Ask yourselves, if you were an Iraqi mother, would you want your children to live in the democracy Mr. Bush has bestowed on them.

Ask an Iraqi, do you love American democracy?

Here is an excerpt from Zayed’s blog, Healingiraq. Zayed is a dental student in Baghdad.

Friday, February 24, 2006
Samarra Attack, the Last Straw? Part 2
Movement today was sparse. The government announced it a day off yesterday, while Sistani, the supreme religious Shi’ite authority, called for his followers to close their businesses for 7 days in mourning. Both he and Muqtada Al-Sadr have urged their followers to continue their `peaceful’ protests today, resulting in more retaliatory clashes and attacks against mosques in several areas of Baghdad. No one can really fathom the amount of damage since movement is very limited. We went out to buy supplies, food and fuel. Baghdadis tend to stockpile at any sign of a looming crisis.

There was not much to hear in our area, apart from the occasional thud and fire exchange, which are really usual everyday experiences for the last 3 years. There was no presence of security forces that I could witness. Friends from areas around Sadr city said pickups full of armed men in black were patrolling the streets, unchallenged by Iraqi security forces. Many people swear that the Interior ministry forces are explicitly siding with the Mahdi militiamen in their rampage of arson and plundering. Most of the mosques in Baghdad are now closed and surrounded by barbed wire.

The Associated Press reported that gunmen stormed into a house south of Baghdad and killed five members of a Shiite family.

Since Wednesday, a groundswell of sectarian fury has roiled Iraq, leaving at least 138 people dead in the first two days and political negotiations over the new government in ruins.

So far, there has been no retaliation by any Sunni groups. There was news of a bombing at a small Shi’ite shrine in the Karrada district called Maqam Sayyid Edriess, but no details on that. A couple of insurgent groups with ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, notably the Mujahideen Council, have denied any responsibility of the Samarra attack. This leads us to wonder, if the Sunni groups have been planning to start a civil war all along, as many analysts have claimed, why are they so silent now? Where is Zarqawi? I am actually baffled by the lack of reprisals or any other response from the Sunni community. That could be the only glimmer of hope we have now. For how long, though? Friday prayers are tomorrow, and that is bad. But then again, maybe there won’t be any Friday prayers, as it looks like most of the mosques are either closed or taken over by Mahdi militiamen, at least in Shi’ite and mixed areas.

The threat of full-scale civil war loomed over the country as Sunni politicians lashed out at Shiite leaders on Thursday, accusing them of igniting anti-Sunni reprisals, and at the American military, charging it with standing idly by as the violence erupted.

The timing of this incident is very ominous. Just as pressure was being mounted on the UIA to form a more inclusive government, and to disband its sectarian militias, we have this. I normally don’t resort to conspiracy theories, and I don’t like the `Who gets to benefit from this?’ explanations. People often commit stupid actions for stupid reasons, and lashing out in violence is also a very human reaction. But still, the extent and the spontaneity of the violence are deeply troubling.

Eyewitnesses and relatives from Samarra claim that American and Iraqi Interior ministry forces blocked the main street leading to the shrine at 9 pm on the night preceding the blast. It was opened again at dawn Wednesday and the troops pulled out of the area. The two blasts occurred at 6:40 and 6:45 am according to residents, while the official statement from Interior minister, Baqir Solagh has them around 7:50 and 8 am. The details on the operation are also very vague. Some sources say there was a force of 35 guards in the shrine, but there were only 4 or 5 that morning. The number of attackers has fluctuated between 4 and 15 armed men, one of them dressed in military uniform and the rest in black. PM Ja’fari mentioned yesterday that preliminary investigations pointed to `infiltration’ of the police, but he has not given any further details since. No word on the 10 suspects that were supposed to have been arrested yesterday either.

You can read more here:

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

Here’s another blog called, A Family in Baghdad:

The anger and rage is palpable.

Saturday, February 18th, 2006
Good evening….

Today, I remembered a sentence I wrote in my diaries at the beginning of the war on Iraq, in 2003, I said that my happiest moments as a mother, were when I used to close the main outside door of the house, and all the family members were inside, gathered for dinner, or to watch TV….
But today I smile bitterly….
Thank GOD we lost none of our family members during this war, but we had to leave our home, and homeland, seeking personal security for the family…
We left our house and all its memories; the beautiful and the sad, we left the neighbors, the relatives, the friends, and everything we love, there….
In times of wars and catastrophes, people might have to give up everything, only to remain alive….

Chaos, corruption, theft. We’re bringing democracy to Iraq.

The new government is lost in an endless political chaos, and the former governments, since the war and occupation in 2003, have a common feature of administrational corruption, publicly, shamelessly. Billions of dollars slipped out of public funds to banks outside Iraq, in neighboring Arab countries, without a watchman, or an accounting…
And poverty, hunger, and unemployment increase in Iraq everyday…
And the bad medical services, or the shortages of water, electricity, and fuels, are still the main topics of people’s talk…,

Horrific, sub-standard, or non-existent medical care. We’re bringing democracy to Iraq.

I met a Kurdish friend of mine, who came from Baghdad two days ago. She said: can you imagine, a child in Karkook was the victim of an explosion, and we took him to Karkook hospital, but we didn’t find any serums or antibiotic medicines for the child?
By GOD, where has the money of Iraq gone?
A public hospital without the simplest treatments for the patients?
We went to Al-Yarmook hospital in Baghdad; its conditions were miserable, and can’t be described, people were thrown on the floors- either wounded or sick… there were no medications, no humanitarian medical care…
Where is the money of Iraq?
Where is the oil money?
I kept staring in her face, for I had no answers…
I only had questions, like hers……

Violence and killing. We’re bringing democracy to iraq.

I received word that our neighbor, a young man who volunteered to work with the Iraqi police force, was killed last Wednesday morning, as he went out of his house to work…
My heart clenched…
I remembered that morning is usually the time of smiles, peacefulness, and listening to the songs of birds, for the ordinary people…
In Iraq, morning became the appropriate time for assassinations…
Who killed him?
He hated the occupation, he volunteered to work in the police force to serve Iraq and the Iraqis, and he refused to go out or immigrate to work in a petty job in neighboring countries. The number of the police and army personnel who were disbanded by the decision of the American Civil Governor of Iraq, Bremer, were about 600,000 men. What will their future be?

Abu Ghraib. We’re bringing democracy to Iraq.

The international media published two reports in the last week:
One about new pictures of violations and oversteppings in the Abu Ghareeb prison…
And another about a video film showing British soldiers in Basra beating Iraqi young men in a savage way…
As always, the American army apologizes that these are individual violations…
And Tony Blair also said about his soldiers that these were individual violations…
And I say that these behaviors enrage people in Iraq and outside Iraq, more than the Bin Laden speeches against the American and British governments… they increase the Arabic people’s dislike against the American-British interference in our lives…
And one day they shall reap the results of these follies…
They shall reap the results of these shameful behaviors, which express their disrespect of our feelings, and dignity…
Sooner or latter…..
The harvest day will come forth….
And as the saying goes: You shall reap the fruits of what you have planted…

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

There are many other blogs, each with a distinct voice.

Read them and ask, what did these people do to deserve George Bush and this catastrophe he has heaped on them.