Why Don’t We Swap Countries?

I read today the news on the obligation by the Bush administration has made towards the Iraqi People by allowing more, as refugees, to enter the United States. The one statement intrigued me was that of the assistant secretary of States, Ellen Sauerbrey: “We have a moral obligation to protect Iraqi refugees, particularly those who belong to persecuted religious minorities as well as those who have worked closely with the United States government since the fall of Saddam Hussein". The focus on allowing “certain religious minorities” was in fact meant Iraqi Christians! Not that I have something against Iraqi Christians - my best friend from childhood was a Christian, but I don’t think she meant the Sab’ies or the Yezidis, right?? Remind of the 1991 Gulf War when the Netherlands and Sweden decided to take Iraqis from Rafha camp sepcifically as refugees! Anyway, the move by the US administration makes me wonder if losing ground in Iraq for the US made their government seek other alternatives to save innocent souls! and that by either providing shelter for Iraqis in the United States, or financing humanitarian organizations to help Iraqis resituated, as indicated in the article?

I find it odd that a country is occupying another country, watch its people getting humiliated, get killed and displaced, and not able until this very moment to provide order and security to an alley or a couple of houses’ blocks. Is it Planned for (oh, not conspiracy theory again) but is it only oil they do care for (as former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan admitted in his new memoir, Age of Turbulance, by saying that “the Iraq war is largely about oil.”)?? Taking into the consideration the cost of human souls lost among US soldiers, and the actions taken by their government, I only become more convinced of the fact that the war generals seems to only have partially solutions. God knows if that the exact meaning of incompetence; One day they come up with big concrete walls to separate areas within the one city; another time sponsoring militias and half-killers to bring order to the street; and now they are dividing the population of Iraq into certain groups based on religious and social aspects and watching this exodus of millions to start all over again somewhere on a spot on this planet.

OK, Iraq is a resourceful country, and has its impact on the world economy with its huge oil reserves maybe - in addition to its strategic and geographic location in the region. Therefore, why spending millions on conquering in the name of freedom? Why having thousands of soldiers getting killed for a reason everyone now knows that it became a child’s (and comedian’s) lie? Why don’t we just swap countries and end the whole tragedy once in and for all? At least this will definitely ensures innocent Iraqis to finally live and die in peace ;)

One Year Blogging Anniversary

I have been asked on a number of occasions why my blog is called “Mixed Mode” instead of “Mixed Mood”? Discipline and putting things in order are two things I consider very important in dealing with many things in daily life; that doesn’t make someone with such attitude boring or viewed by others as being dead serious 24 hours a day (including in his sleep), or someone with a tight suit and thin ties, with glasses, while his hair is ironed on his head with gel!! Discipline is the contrast to the concept of chaos! People with short temper are considered chaotic; it is also chaotic when one acts towards someone or something in a certain way and after few minutes he or she acts / behave differently i.e. quick change in mood. There is nothing wrong with “change of heart” or “change ones mind” – some call it emotional decisions, but there is no harm of this “change in attitude” especially if it was the result of rational analysis of things. Therefore, the combination of reason (or rationality) and emotions can build the correct formula into separating chaos from constructive variety, i.e. mixed mode.

“Mode” means approach, but many arguably describe a mode as being a “form”. In music, though, a mode can encompass of different mixed groups of scales, which in total can make a musical form. Life, in my personal opinion is like a musical mode; it contains a mix of different happy and sad flow of events (hence scales). I want my blog to be like that, to be mixed mode! In the past year, this has been noticed by any visitor to my blog: from expressing rage and frustration of daily news about Iraq and the world, to sharing and posting imaginary headline news. I even wrote a song on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq!

In the past year, I wrote about many things, and different things. It was not my intention to make my blog political (as some accuse me), or to limit the topics to the daily tragedies and events fiercely put upon Iraq and its people by the mercenaries. I wanted my blog to be informative; When I talked about the Yezidis, for example, I wanted to bring attention that Iraq is not all about Sunni and Shiite and Kurds, and that there are communities who are living under the same conditions as the rest. Above all the aim I personally have is to have my blog consists of everything and anything; From reviewing movies, such of “Yacoubian Building” and “the last King of Scottland”, or music, such as my all time favorite guitarists , and being passionate about a female singer from the beautiful country of Lebanon.

About Iraq, in the previous year I realized that bloggers vary from one person to another, depends on the way they see their blogs, the events around them, and how they want it to be at the end. I did not want my blog to be like a daily journal like some; I never pictured myself as an online reporter, unless I transform my blog to an exclusive blog about an Iraqi who lives in the Netherlands. In fact I did that once and twice. One of my main aims from this blog is to put my own perspective into the events in Iraq in spite of the fact that I live outside the country for many and many years. Among many sad (and sometimes happy) events in Iraq, I wanted to share fear of the danger surrounding a specific community group in Iraq. I wanted to bring awareness to actions, such as the one about a threat message written on the walls of a disserted house in one of Iraqi cities. I also talked about new dilemma’s took place in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. On many occasions, simply put, I voiced my loud opposition to anyone who did and keep on trying to harm the Iraqi people either in the name of democracy or freedom or religion…etc you take your pick!! However, with all the violence engulfing Iraq’s society there are really still people over there who think rationally and most importantly think positively, to the contrary of those whom without any notice stand in the middle of everyone and start spraying curses and accusations like random bullets in the dark.

Blogging was like taking a time-travel machine and go back to the old days. I felt the sad smile printed on my face while writing about these days, because the circumstances were not that good at all, but on many occasions I cherish every minute of it. One example of that is when I wrote about the corner of the doomed. In fact, the whole concept of revising “the good old days” was the main idea behind creating a new blog specifically for that purpose i.e. Iraq the Lasting Love. Speaking of that blog, I want to send a big thank you to a friend who did a brilliant job helping me and supporting me in order to make that blog successful. You know who you are; my dear friend… thanks a lot. I realize that Iraq the lasting love needs a lot of work and has been neglected but work will presume on that blog too in the very near future. This is something I promised myself to do.

When I look back to one year of blogging, I ask myself: were there any achievements from all this? Spending hours in gazing at the monitor either for reading or for writing! I guess the answer is too long to answer, or is it that already been written to be considered as an answer? Or, maybe other Iraqi bloggers can give an answer!