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| Iraq | |
| Voices of Baghdad Etched on Its Walls | |
| 2003-11-19 | |
| Newsday. EFL Thousands of slogans in the Arabic script snake across acres of gray walls that line city squares, apartments and office buildings [in Baghdad], a perfect canvas for the outpourings of a population intoxicated by new freedoms. Hussein loyalists shout their yearning for the deposed dictator - "Saddam will come again" - followed by the coda on the same line from a detractor: "Through my behind!" Score one for the detractor. "I walk around reading these writings, and some of them move me so much I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry," said Amir Nayef Toma, 52, a retired radar operator in the Iraqi army. "You want to know what Iraqis are thinking? Read these walls." In a place where reliable surveys of the public mood are difficult to gauge, the writings on the walls are one way to peer into Iraqis’ minds. Hussein is naturally a lightning rod for all sides, but the other issues that preoccupy the nighttime scribblers are their daily struggles for survival, their Arab neighbors and the new men in charge of their lives. "Some are ironic, some are funny, some are artistic," said Muhir Edan, a bookseller in the Old Baghdad section of the city whose friends teasingly say he is a Colin Powell look-alike. "Even now, some are afraid to say something in the newspapers. I am still afraid," he said. "But at night, in the cover of darkness, you can write what you want." Edan’s favorites are the back-and-forth graffiti repartee: "The masses are stronger than tyrants," one slogan declared. Next to it a skeptic asked: "When? Before or after liberation by the Americans?"
Hussein’s family also comes in for abuse: "Where are your wife and daughters, Saddam? Are you pimping them in Jordan?" Syria, more likely. "I like what I read," said Karal Nadji, a Shia street vendor who sells shoes. "We appreciate Mr. Bush. We’re all waiting for the fruits of change." Critics of the Iraqi Governing Council and Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the Iraqi National Congress, are frequent targets of barbed witticisms. A popular slogan comparing the politician with an Iraqi chickpea dish declares: "Neither Bush we want, nor Chalabi; we want beer and lablabee." Buy that man an adult beverage! | |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 I think they're about to discover that the ability to mercilessly ridicule your enemy is a powerful and important weapon |
| Posted by: BH 2003-11-19 2:56:08 PM |
| #1 This is what the kindly dentist who runs the Healing Iraq blog has to say: Those militants don't understand any language except the language of force. F--- human rights. Those aren't humans anyway. We desperately NEED to see some heads rolling. Believe it or not. Theres going to have to be some bloodshed for this to work. Bomb the hell out of Tikrit and Al-Awja. Massacre every last person of Saddam's tribe. ... Yeah. Let them taste some of what we have endured the last 30 years. I don't want to see my dreams ruined because of those trianglees. If the CPA doesn't want to do it, send in a force of IP and civil defense forces and turn your face the other way, they'll be more than glad to do it, believe me. Via Silent Running. Edited. |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-11-19 12:33:10 PM |