The Iraq Paradox

just like for most, media has painted a very bad picture of Iraq for me. but talking to my arab friends confirm the truths in what were written. civil wars, killings, bombings, etc... it's the never-ending saga of trying to build a new government. i only need to click "war in iraq" in google, and there pops 120,000,000 sites within 0.42 seconds! wow! just imagine all the space this topic occupies in the cyber history...

lately, i've been working frequently with our iraqi co-employee for some of our local business development projects. yes, an iraqi, but he is not the stereotype. trips going to traffic-congested dubai, and all the inner streets therein, leave us with so much time to kill. and being the ever-curious cat, i pestered him with my questionings...

"how's your family?" "since the war started in 2003, they stayed in Barsa, which is south of Baghdad. they are fine but i always worry about them."

"how has the war affected your life?" "i think things are never going to get better. we used to be a rich country, with good sources of oil. but now, economy is plunging sooo low. "

"what really is the war about" "i think it is more of the unresolvable conflict between Sunni and Shia, the two types of Muslims."

"what??? I thought there is only one type of muslim" "no. sunni is the bigger of the two. they have been fighting in iraq ever since. when saddam was ousted, we knew it was not going to be an end, but another beginnning. a new reason to fight over... and the cycle goes on... "

"what are they fighting for" "i really don't know anymore."

"blah blah blah".... my line of questionings were endless, with some bordering into ultimate boring ones, so i will spare you the details...

even if i ran thru the whole of the 120,000,000 sites, i still would not find one real answer to "why is this happening?" nor will i ever find a good rationalization on the occurence of all these. but one thing i have always been sure of, as cliche-ish as it may sound, truly, there are no winners in any kind of war. thousands of innocent lives have been taken away. thousands of lives shattered. thousands still are better off dead than slowly dying...

i remembered reading some marvelous things about Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization... and centuries after, now Iraq, the cradle of uncivilization! A sad paradox.