A
young girl crossing Baghdad's Jumhouriya Bridge, basks
in
the
short-lived glow of Iraq's liberation in 2003.
Kitabat, Iraq
Six Years On: America's Tank on the Jumhouriya
Bridge
"The country was opened like an oyster and its innards
tampered with by fishermen, smugglers, louts, friends with blue collars, the
gluttonous, the bald, the blind, the one-eyed, the lame, the cross-eyed, those
wearing robes that don't fit, mourners of the dead, those who circulate rumors,
those who manufacture rotten yeast, liars, pretenders, hypocrites, those with
short pants, desert dogs, wolves of the night, the cowboy mafia, drug
traffickers and journalists complicit in spreading news according to the timing
of the occupation ... "
By Warid Bader as-Salim
Translated By Jenny Oliver
April 9, 2009
Iraq - Kitabat - Original Article (Arabic)
Six years ago today when American tanks first entered central
Baghdad, like many others, I thought I was the first Iraqi to see it!
With reticence I can recall the scene and more or less bring it to
mind, trying to reduce the distance that time imposes on a period so stained
with Iraqi blood. Life stopped precisely on the Jumhouriya Bridge. Back then we could only wonder: Is this a sign of salvation or just
the latest milestone of death overseen by people with different names and
titles?
[Editor's Note: The Jumhouriya Bridge is a vital bridge that spans
the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad. American tanks were positioned on
the bridge when the U.S. seized Baghdad in April, 2003]
On the ninth of April, 2003, we didn't think that our lives and
culture were to be new ones or that our lives depended on the events of that
day. Then everything collided and became intertwined: lines, colors, titles,
names and addresses. Childish tantrums began and those stricken with ill-will -
on the left, right and center - made the Improvised Explosive Device an
alternative to the tree; and the bullet an alternative for a kind word.
The tank on the Jumhouriya Bridge was a fixed reality that Iraqis
witnessed just as the rest of the world did: moment by moment. It was a fact of
the occupation just as it was a fact of the liberation. For Iraq, it was a
reality that heralded a new chapter after many other chapters filled with hardship,
war, and unspeakable psychological devastation.
An American Marine covers the head of a statue of Saddam
with
the Stars and Stripes, in Baghdad's central square, April
2003.
With my senses trembling, I believed I was witnessing the first
American tank pierce the Iraqi mystery that had so darkened our lives. The tank
sat motionless on the only bridge dividing East from West Baghdad. It silently
observed the country. Throughout their history, the Iraqi people were
instructed to applaud the regime, but with amazing speed, the leaders of that
regime disappeared - almost as if they were spirits or ghosts!
Five years have passed and still the tank remains parked there on the
Jumhouriya Bridge, dividing Baghdad into two sections. And the people reel
under appealing slogans that confuse lies with hypocrisy, hypocrisy with false
ideology, religion with banditry, and turbans with forbidden property.
APRIL: THE LAST MONTH AND THE FIRST MONTH
...
The country was opened like an oyster and its innards tampered
with by fishermen, smugglers, louts, friends with blue-collars, the gluttonous,
the bald, the blind, the one-eyed, the lame, the cross-eyed, those wearing
robes that don't fit, mourners of the dead, those who circulate rumors, those
who manufacture rotten yeast, liars, pretenders, hypocrites, those with short
pants, desert dogs, wolves of the night, the cowboy mafia, drug traffickers and
journalists complicit in spreading news according to the timing of the
occupation ...
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The tank on the Jumhouriya Bridge was an early sign of a long
autumn, but we didn't understand it. So we took the fruit of the liberation. We
peeled off our t-shirts and a towel with the image of a beautiful green spring
was spread out before us. This image was carried by the new satellite TV
channels, which mixed the poison of occupation with the honey of liberation. We
drank these two chemicals as though we were lab rats!
Six years have passed - and more will come and go - but the tank
remains on the Jumhouriya Bridge, dividing us in two!
Oh nation between the two rivers [the Tigris and Euphrates], how
much more can you endure?
You are stripped naked and bleeding.
How much longer until your two divisions merge on a new Iraqi
bridge! …
waridbader@gmail.com
CLICK HERE FOR ARABIC VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 13, 6:19pm]
