Hey there!
Ramada, is the month that Muslims fast in it, our fasting means not eating, or drinking or having a "physical" relation with women, since sunrise and till sunset for the whole month, in the Islamic calendar Ramadan is the name of the month that we fast.
Ramadan is coming soon, so those who want to get married are rushing it, you sure can see why.
usually wedding are planned to happen on Thursdays, since the weekly holiday here is Friday, as you know.
so, last Thursday I went to two weddings, the first, my cousin, who is not a religious person, and in that case, the wedding is a big party for men and women together, where its the best place for any girl to demonstrate her beauty, since the society -the not-very-religious part of it- allows women to wear almost whatever they want in the weddings, with full make up and the best hair cuts...So single girls take the chance to attract the attention of single men, and of course their mothers too:)
so its basically a beauty contest that men LOVE to attend.
I don't like my cousin, and I was embarrassed being in that place where all girls look everywhere hunting young single nice guys like myself, but I simply had to be there cause he is my cousin, and my father and brothers are abroad, so I am the only one left to represent the family.
weddings are usually a party where the bride and the groom sit on two luxuries big chairs on a stage, and in front of them all people dance, there is usually a band or a DJ, and at some point the bride and the groom get off their stage to dance with their friends together, before they get back to their seats and wait till dinner is served, and then the moment that they have been waiting for it for a long time, can you believe how horrible it is that you have to wait for all these dancing idiots to leave so you can "be" finally for the first time with your wife? (even in the part of the society that isn't really religious its almost taken for granted that the bride is version, unless she was marred before, actually whenever someone gets married, after their first night together, they show people ( the way to make that defers from place to place) that bed sheets covered with blood to prove that their girl is virgin.
anyway lets get back to our story, Iraqis are generally ver nice people, but there are two situations where you don't want to see an Iraqi, the first, when he is angry ( the untolerable heat cases that if you ask me) and when he is dancing!!
all educated nice people get back to their primitive roots, they jump in a very active scary way, Iraqi sons and music are totally dependent on very base drumm's, and people follow the rethim, and everyone gets back to his " m3edi " roots, creepy...Imagine a group of people with a double doze of "speed" that have been waiting to celebrate (for just any reason, doesn't matter) for alooong time, that how it looks like.
and its infectious, any other Iraqi who sees that must jump in, while non-Iraqis run home crying for help.
after everything was over, and the groom and the bride stood up and headed to their car, since the traditions are to to accompany them with as many cars as possible till they get -usually- for a nice hotel to spend the night, or to their house, and you sure could see *that* smile on their faces while they were leaving ;)
after the wedding was over, I went to the other wedding party, one of my friends, a religious person from a religious family, the deference is that religious people make two parties in separates locations, one for men and one for women, far from that everything is very much the same, I was in the men party of course:D
when I arrived the party was almost over, I searched for my friend, cause this party was outside, in the garden of an organization, while the first one was inside the hunting club, I found my friend surrounded by his friends, a shouted "khatiyya ma yistahil!!!" before he noticed I am there, it means " the poor guy doesn't deserve this to happen to him" and everyone laughed, I kissed him 2 thousands kisses, that's the Iraqi way, and his father too, and told them that I had to leave, it was late already, a bit after 8pm its not safe to stay out in Baghdad after this time, they of course understood with no need for explanations, and I kissed them again 2 thousands kisses, that's the Iraqi traditions, you kiss everyone when you come and when you leave, and I went home:))
it was a nice day!
why am I telling you all this ?
cause I dropped mom at her friend's place, and I stil have another 30 minutes before my appointment with the dentist, where I will start a series of hateful drilling for four teeth :*(( he thought they are in early stage of, ehhh, what's the word? I don't know I am sure you know what I am talking about:))
so I think I am gonna go, GOD I hate dentists and their horrible torturing machines.
aw aw
I have another story!
:D
I was looking for a gun to keep in my place, so I went to one of these areas that people avoid them , specially at night, but I took some measurements, I let someone know where I am going, and I took absolutely no thing that proves my identity ( In case I kidnapped, they wouldn't know how to contact my family or who are they, what they have, they will have to take my word ) and I was wearing very simple clothes, and putting a poker face, freezing confident looks, that's what it takes, I thought.
I knew that there is a place that sells guns there, its a falafel restaurant actually, I went there and talked to the guy directly, I need a gun (I tolf him what I need exactly) he looked at me and said: well I don't have that kind of guns now, but if you want I can give you my gun, you can do your "thing" and get it back to me whenever you want!!!!!
people don't get me wrong, its the first time I do such a thing, and I don't know these people, and I don't deal with guns, but I needed a gun cause they are kidnapping people from inside their houses for GOD's sake!!
ok, get back to our story:
he actually told me that I can take his gun ( I really don't know the guy) and do my "thing" (an Iraqi expression, meaning kill the person I want to kill) and give him his gun back! And he was looking a me with really innocent eyes, and was very relax, like he was talking about giving me spoon to ave lunch and give it back to him.
I mean, think of it, isn't he sweet? haha:)
then I thought, maybe I over-tried looking like one of them.
anyway, at the moment he said that I was about to burst laughing, but I kept the criminal face on.
I thanked him for his generosity:D and I walked away, making sure no one was following me.
and my adventure was over, and I went home without a gun, but with a smile on my face...
me*

Another we-feel-like-killing festival a pilot reports unarmed civilians walkin gthe streets of falluja and requestas permission to "take them out" and gets it in a blink, after killing them he says: awwww dude!
enjoy libration.
forward this to everybody you know, start with the war supporters, and the forums you usually visit.
The world needs to know how things are in Iraq.
khalid*

The last few days were really horrible...
the number of car bombs in the street is more than the number of the regular cars :*(
so many explosions everywhere...So many kills everyday, a very small percentage of them ( the killed people) are from the occupation forces, and the rest are Iraqi people.
Quran states that whoever kills an innocent soul is like he killed every soul on earth, i cant imagine that anyone can consider himself a Muslim would do that.
so many theories about the party behind all that, you just open the discussion and hear every funny theory in the world.
today a taxi driver told me that he *knows* who is putting car bombs in front of the army employing offices, he said:
Its Iran and Syria!
And i was like "huh?" and i said: "why the heck would they do that?!"
He said "its all an American plan! The Americans are planning to make an Iraqi army that is strong enough to invade Iran, that's the plan, they will invade Iran using the Iraqi army! And Iran and Syria want to make sure that doesn't happen!"
i pretended that i didn't hear that, and i didn't say a word:)
the other day i was sleeping, and then a really strong explosion happened, although i found out later that the car bomb was few kilometers away from my place, but yet it was strong enough to slap the doors inside the house, so of course i woke up, i panicked for a small part of a second before my brain realized it was only an explosion and got back to sleep, the thing that happened for the rest of the second that i panicked in, is that i was telling myself: what's up big guy, are you getting soft? Now an explosion wakes you up in panic?
well, it was only a small part of a second, but yet, it wasn't normal!
many people ask me, why don't you leave, you have a place in jordan, go live there, day after day, Baghdad is becoming intolerable, this evening i drove by some metal junk on the airport street, which are what's left of a car that exploded yesterday, and the cars that were around it, it just doesnt look real to me, all this, i deal with it like its a movie, i don't think that it could be me in any of these cars, i just continued my way, and thought that some trees beside the street were beautiful. (did i mention that i was in my way to the dentist? Isn't it just horrible this drill he uses to torture people who don't brush their teeth long enough?)
i had to do some paper work, in Karrada, it takes few hours to go there and come back, although its a few kilometers trip only, the traffic is just unbelievable, you would never expect to see that number of cars in one place in your life, over 1 000 000 cars entered Iraq since the invasion, and the number of streets is decreasing day by day, the occupation closes more streets to inside their safety, someone was telling me that all stolen cars are going to ira through the kurds, and i told him that its a great idea, we need a way to solve the traffic.
is this ever gonna end?
the airport street used to be a small part of the heavens, so beautiful, trees and flowers, green grass and palm trees, now its ugly sand, with tanks hiding between what's left of the trees, after the occupation cut and burned every tree to make sure no one hides there.
the street itself used to be one of the finest and smoothest, i remember driving over 200km/hr when i wanted to test our car, the one that was hijacked, now its more like Swiss cheese, filled with holes coming form so many explosions happens on daily base, increasing sometimes and disappearing other times.
Baghdad, the city of peace and love, the city of science and literature, doesn't exist anymore.
Baghdad, where everybody is proud, where everybody can smile, is no longer there!
an ugly occupation, millions of unemployed people, economic crises, looong lines o get fuel for your car, suffocating traffic jam, killing, looting, hijacking and explosions, that is what Baghdad is all about today.
when you walk in the street, you look behind your shoulder, you are afraid to be kidnapped, or killed by thieves, or by the occupation army, by mistake, as usual, or get a bullet from no where, but still when i walk i remember the words of our National anthem:

My homeland...My homeland..
your youngesters shall not get tired, of wanting independency, and dying in their way to have it.
we would rather drink from the glass of death, but we wont be slaves for the enemies...
we shall not accept, an everlasting humiliation and a miserable life...
we shall not accept that..And we will restore your great glory...
my homeland....My homeland...

and i let my tears go down....
me*

Woooohhaaaaaaaa!!
I did it!! I did it!
i finally did it!
I passed!! i am in my senior year now!
Wooohooooo! Yaaaahheeeee!! Woooheeeeeee! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I am more than 3/4 Engineer now :D
Hey world! Eng Khalid is coming soon!
:)))
I am happy! I am happy! all thank to GOD:)))

me*

Now, isn't that just sweet?:)
me*

Hi:

After a year and a half of the invation of Iraq, we are still under occupation.
Alot of American people care to know what things are really like, what is going on in Iraq, and how is our daily life going.
The Jarrars (Faiza, Raed and Khalid) are preparing to come to the states to make a tour, talk in Universities and other places, meet as much people as possible, to talk about Iraq and the war.


We are looking for sponsorship, if anyone is interested please contact me.


I leave you to do some reading ( what good newspapers are for if a blogger cant use them instead of blogging when he is tired) ? :)




-----------------

18 Months Later, Annan Says Iraq Invasion “Illegal”

-----------------

They were wrong about WMD, they were wrong about the links with Alqaeda, lets hope they are wrong this time too: U.S. Intelligence Shows Pessimism on Iraq's Future

Have a good day...
me*

Hi :))
there is onething i have in common with French people, its that Americans ask us all the time: do Do you hate us?!
well, i don't know about the French, but i know about myself, that's what i intend to talk about, if you have time.
Do you want the short answer or the long answer?
ok, lets start with the short and move to the full version after.
The short answer is: i hate Americans? That is so not true!
The long answer is : i hate Americans? Believe me that is so not true!
oh not long enough?:) ok, i will give it another shoot:

Its very important to me, that you know that i respect American people, if i want to write a list of 50 close friends, at least five of them would be American, and i have so much American friends outside the "close friends" list too, my experience with American people is very good, i find them simple, sincere and caring people, hardworking i may add too.that applies too on most, if not all of the other nationalities, there always exceptions, but i am talking generally, as i was meant to "be" in this time and place, war time, in Iraq, i had the chance to meet so many foreigners, probably any person who lives a normal life in a normal country, wont meet half the number of foreigners i met unless he works in a border center:) anyway, after this experience with all these people, and the online-people who i know too, i cant say anything like: "all people are nice, except those from X country", that just cant happen, because every country in the world have the good and the bad, mixed together, that is life.
but as i am accused of hating Americans particularly, i will talk about them particularly:
i know a very nice, very active politician American woman, who i consider my virtual auntie, i have a very lovely old lady who i consider my virtual grandma, i have a very wonderful friend who i consider my virtual brother, all of them are Americans, and i have a list of other people who i open my computer and check my mail hoping to find something form them, all of those are American people, who i love and respect, you check my mail and you would find Akkadia, Connie, Lena, Mary, Julie so many others, all American, all dear and precious to me. Its the Admenstraion that i a stand against, and that comes from the policy they chose to have towards us, and that "us" seen to include many people: Muslims, Arabs, Iraqis and even Americans, and you all are seeing what kind of policy it is, and you all are seeing its results.
me*

I know I know, three posts in six hours is not normal, bu i coulnt leave you without drowing a smile on your face.
did i say draw a mile? forget it, just dont laugh till you die, i dont need people suing me around the world:))


George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in Pelestine!.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China.Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N. Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of Palestine! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.) Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get chinese food in the Middle East?

hahahahahahaha, Rolling on the floor laughing:)))
me*

I had the nicest dream!

see, in the last period, i have been spemding aloooot of hours online, like over 12 hours daily maybe, and i stopped classifying the day as a two parts unit, day and night, i just sit infront of the computer too long, and then when i al bored or tiered i take a 4-hours nap, once in every 24 hours, sometimes twice in every three days, and then get back to work!

anyways, the dream, i dreamed that they released the Semonas and Dr Raad, and i saw them and i huged them, and they looked very happy! and they were laughing! and telling funny stories about the moment they were they kidnapped! and i dont remember the rest of the dream but it was nice really:)

Jeremy Scahill, wrote one of the peaces i conider the best till now since i know all the kidnaped people and worked with them, in the same building they were kidnapped from:

What we do know is this: if this hostage-taking ends in bloodshed, Washington, Rome and their Iraqi surrogates will be quick to use the tragedy to justify the brutal occupation - an occupation that Simona Torretta, Simona Pari, Raad Ali Abdul Azziz and Mahnouz Bassam risked their lives to oppose. And we will be left wondering whether that was the plan all along.

have a good day.

me*

Freedom in USA?? seem to be fading away day by day, people are afraid to talk, they are getting exactly like Iraqis under Saddam's goverment, "hashshsh, keep it down, walls have ears" thats what people always say, emails coming to me, reflect a new Saddamist verion, only this time inside America, people are afriad, they ask me not to mention their names, they ask me not to tell i am talking to them, fear is sneaking into their hearts and daily life. i really hope I its not true.


one of my good readers, in her last email:

"Thanks again for blogging! You've brought up so many points that I think about over and over. Most of my friends think I'm nutty, but I still tell them about your family and how miserable we've made your lives by occupying Iraq. I told my daughter about it, and she was surprised. She really didn't know how awful and wrong the US occupation of Iraq is. I guess I'd better visit her in person very soon and tell her why Bush is so awful for everyone - not just Iraqis! I was a bit afraid to tell her on the cell phone - Big Brother might just hide me away somewhere. But I can't fear that anymore. Some things are too important. I might get locked away as a crazy person for telling everyone to read Iraqi blogs and vote against Bush and his policies, but at least I know in my heart I'm not crazy - Bush is!"

a good friend of mine, who said she cant talk to me anymore cause " they " might know about her and lock her up for a reason or another, for talking to an Iraqi and critisizing Bush's adminstration actions:

" But a once you have kids, a lot of those things change. You become a much more cautious person. I probably would have gone to New York to protest at the Republican party's political convention last month, but not with my child to take care of. All those types of things are over for me. At least not until he's grown up and out of the house anyway".

I tied to make this as brief as possible, i left out alot; Ladies and Gentelme, welcome to the Bush world:

Ambitious warrior

2 Number of Nations that George Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into office.
130 Approximate Number of countries (out of a total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with a US military presence.
43 Percentage of the entire world's military spending that the US spends on defence. (That was in 2002, the year before the invasion of Iraq.)
$401.3bn Proposed military budget for 2004.


Saviour of Iraq

1983 The year in which Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs as a gift.
2.5 Number of hours after Rumsfeld learnt that Osama bin Laden was a suspect in the 11 September attacks that he brought up reasons to "hit" Iraq.
237 Minimum number of misleading statements on Iraq made by top Bush administration officials between 2002 and January 2004, according to the California Representative Henry Waxman.
10m Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets on 21 February 2003, in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, the largest simultaneous protest in world history.
$2bn Estimated monthly cost of US military presence in Iraq projected by the White House in April 2003.
$4bn Actual monthly cost of the US military presence in Iraq according to Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld in 2004.
$15m Amount of a contract awarded to an American firm to build a cement factory in Iraq.
$80,000 Amount an Iraqi firm spent (using Saddam's confiscated funds) to build the same factory, after delays prevented the American firm from starting it.
2000 Year that Cheney said his policy as CEO of Halliburton oil services company was "we wouldn't do anything in Iraq".
$4.7bn Total value of contracts awarded to Halliburton in Iraq and Afghanistan.
$680m Estimated value of Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded to Bechtel.
$2.8bn Value of Bechtel Corp contracts in Iraq.
$120bn Amount the war and its aftermath are projected to cost for the 2004 fiscal year.
35 Number of countries to which the United States suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court.
92 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2002.
60 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2003.
55 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who were unemployed before the war.
80 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who are unemployed a Year after the war.
0 Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender in May 1945.
37 Death toll of US soldiers in Iraq in May 2003, the month combat operations "officially" ended.
0 Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home that the Bush administration has permitted to be photographed.
0 Number of memorial services for the returned dead that Bush has attended since the beginning of the war.

A soldier's best friend

40,000 Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47.
$60m Estimated cost of outfitting those 40,000 soldiers with Interceptor vests.
62 Percentage of gas masks that army investigators discovered did Not work properly in autumn 2002.
90 Percentage of detectors which give early warning of a biological weapons attack found to be defective.
87 Percentage of Humvees in Iraq not equipped with armour capable of stopping AK-47 rounds and protecting against roadside bombs and landmines at the end of 2003.

Making the country safer

$3.29 Average amount allocated per person Nationwide in the first round of homeland security grants.
$94.40 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in American Samoa.
$36 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in Wyoming, Vice-President Cheney's home state.
$17 Amount allocated per person in New York state.
$5.87 Amount allocated per person in New York City.
$77.92 Amount allocated per person in New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale University, Bush's alma mater.
76 Percentage of 215 cities surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors in early 2004 that had yet to receive a dime in federal homeland security assistance for their first-response units.
5 Number of major US airports at the beginning of 2004 that the Transportation Security Administration admitted were Not fully screening baggage electronically.
22,600 Number of planes carrying unscreened cargo that fly into New York each month.
5 Estimated Percentage of US air cargo that is screened, including cargo transported on passenger planes.
95 Percentage of foreign goods that arrive in the United States by sea.
2 Percentage of those goods subjected to thorough inspection.
$5.5bn Estimated cost to secure fully US ports over the Next decade.
$0 Amount Bush allocated for port security in 2003.
$46m Amount the Bush administration has budgeted for port security in 2005.
15,000 Number of major chemical facilities in the United States.
100 Number of US chemical plants where a terrorist act could endanger the lives of more than one million people.
0 Number of new drugs or vaccines against "priority pathogens" listed by the Centres for Disease Control that have been developed and introduced since 11 September 2001.

Giving a hand up to the advantaged

$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.
75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).
79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration.

A man with a lot of friends

$113m Amount of total hard money the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign received, a record.
$11.5m Amount of hard money raised through the Pioneer programme, the controversial fund-raising process created for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. (Participants pledged to raise at least $100,000 by bundling together cheques of up to $1,000 from friends and family. Pioneers were assigned numbers, which were included on all cheques, enabling the campaign to keep track of who raised how much.)

George Bush: Money manager

4.7m Number of bankruptcies that were declared during Bush's first three years in office.
2002 The worst year for major markets since the recession of the 1970s.
$489bn The US trade deficit in 2003, the worst in history for a single year.
$5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.
$7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004.

George Bush: Tax cutter

87 Percentage of American families in April 2004 who say they have felt no benefit from Bush's tax cuts.
39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.
49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.
88 Percentage of American families who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes.
$30,858 Amount Bush himself saved in taxes in 2003.

Employment tsar

9.3m Number of US unemployed in April 2004.
2.3m Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.
22m Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.

Friend of the poor

34.6m Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).
6.8m Number of people in the workforce but still classified as poor.
35m Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.
$300m Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes.
40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.
18 Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1e per cent of the population.

George Bush And his special friend

$60bn Loss to Enron stockholders, following the largest bankruptcy in US history.
$205m Amount Enron CEO Kenneth Lay earned from stock option profits over a four-year period.
$101m Amount Lay made from selling his Enron shares just before the company went bankrupt.
$59,339 Amount the Bush campaign reimbursed Enron for 14 trips on its corporate jet during the 2000 campaign.
30 Length of time in months between Enron's collapse and Lay (whom the President called "Kenny Boy") still not being charged with a crime.

George Bush: Lawman

15 Average number of minutes Bush spent reviewing capital punishment cases while governor of Texas.
46 Percentage of Republican federal judges when Bush came to office.
57 Percentage of Republican federal judges after three years of the Bush administration.
33 Percentage of the $15bn Bush pledged to fight Aids in Africa that must go to abstinence-only programmes.

The Civil libertarian

680 Number of suspected al-Qa'ida members that the United States admits are detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
42 Number of nationalities of those detainees at Guantanamo.
22 Number of hours prisoners were handcuffed, shackled, and made to wear surgical masks, earmuffs, and blindfolds during their flight to Guantanamo.
32 Number of confirmed suicide attempts by Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
24 Number of prisoners in mid-2003 being monitored by psychiatrists in Guantanamo's new mental ward.

A health-conscious president

43.6m Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).
2.4m Number of Americans who lost their health insurance during Bush's first year in office.

Image booster for the US

2,500 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further the image of the US abroad in 1991.
1,200 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further US image abroad in 2004.
4 Rank of the United States among countries considered to be the greatest threats to world peace according to a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes study (Israel, Iran, and North Korea were considered more dangerous; Iraq was considered less dangerous).
$66bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 1949.
$23.8bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 2002.
85 Percentage of Indonesians who had an unfavourable image of the United States in 2003.

Second-party endorsements

90 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2001.
67 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2002.
54 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 30 September, 2003.
50 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 15 October 2003.
49 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president in May 2004.

done!!

me*

One great site about the costs of war on Iraq, check it:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. EisenhowerApril 16, 1953

The Washington Times syas its word about it too:
Washington, DC, Jul. 1 (UPI) -- The average U.S. household has already spent almost $1600 on the war in Iraq, according to a report presented in Washington Wednesday. The final bill will be an estimated $3,415, based on the U.S. military's prediction of a three-year military occupation, says the report, citing calculations by economist Doug Henwood.

power is on!! finally, after 12 electricityless hours.

A pictue: Iraqi boys in a machine shop on Sheik Omar street, central Baghdad. An entire generation of Iraqi children are growing up under the permanent shadow of a U.S. war, a fact unlikely to benefit either society. War is our common enemy.

George W. Bush : Give me a second chance:*( i am not sure if you should laugh or cry when you read it.

The Environmental side of me speaking:
With violence gripping Iraq, environmentalists are struggling to draw attention to damage caused during last year's U.S.-led invasion, the 1991 Gulf War and waste discharged by industry struggling with years of sanctions.

Dont you have a life offline? stop reading and go live it!
me*

Baghdad is sinking in darkness since 4 am, its 1 pm now and we didn't have electricity yet.
my suicidal friend, Ghaith, who you know as G, was in Haifa street when the American army had a little we-feel-like-killing-today festival.

Ghaith says: "More kids ventured into the street, looking with curiosity at the dead and injured. Then someone shouted "Helicopters!" and we ran. I turned and saw two small helicopters, black and evil. Frightened, I ran back to my shelter where I heard two more big explosions. At the end of the street the man in the orange overall was still sweeping the street.
The man with the bent knee was unconscious now, his face flat on the curb. Some kids came and said, "He is dead." I screamed at them. "Don't say that! He is still alive! Don't scare him." I asked him if he was OK, but he didn't reply." click on t elink to read the res of the article.

Many killing festivals take place everyday, but as long as there isn't reporters filming, its all cool.

up to 13 000 civilians killed till now, and still counting, "only" 2 000 out of them were killed during the war time (is it over?) .

More stupid policy, more killing, leads to more anger, more violence, The administration wants to shift $1.804 billion now earmarked for water, sewage and electricity projects to expand Iraqi police and other security forces, says http://www.iraq-war.ru/tiki-index.php , where you can also find interesting news and facts about Iraq and war.

Have you met Kathy Kelly? If not, hell you missed too much fun!

'Time to consider Iraq withdrawal'Financial Times Editorial, 10 September, 2004, which requires registration, so i thought I'd better copy paste it to you here:



'Time to consider Iraq withdrawal'Financial Times Editorial, 10 September, 2004This week a macabre milestone was passed in Iraq. More than 1,000 American soldiers have now been killed since the US-led invasion of the country began nearly 18 months ago. The overwhelming majority lost their lives after President George W. Bush declared major combat operations over in his now infamous "Mission Accomplished" photo-opportunity in May last year.In that time, an unknown number of mostly civilian Iraqis, certainly not less than 10,000 and possibly three times that number, have perished, and hundreds more are dying each week. After an invasion and occupation that promised them freedom, Iraqis have seen their security evaporate, their state smashed and their country fragment into a lawless archipelago ruled by militias, bandits and kidnappers.The transitional political process, designed to lead to constituent assembly and general elections next year, has been undermined because the nervous US-dominated occupation authority has insisted on hand-picking various permutations of interim Iraqi governors, mostly exiles or expatriates with no standing among their people. Whatever Iraqis thought about the Americans on their way in - and it was never what these emigré politicians told Washington they would be thinking - an overwhelming majority now views US forces as occupiers rather than liberators and wants them out.The aftermath of a war won so quickly has been so utterly bungled, moreover, that the US is down to the last vestiges of its always exiguous allied support, at the time when Iraq needs every bit of help it can get. The occupation has lost control of big swathes of the country. Having decided that all those who lived and worked in Iraq under Saddam Hussein bore some degree of collective guilt, Washington's viceroys purged the country's armed forces, civil service and institutions to a degree that broke the back of the state, marginalised internal political forces, sidelined many with the skills to rebuild Iraq's services and utilities and, of course, fuelled an insurgency US forces have yet to identify accurately, let alone get to grips with.There are signs that US officials are beginning to "get it" - in the phrase Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, patronisingly used this week to characterise Iraqis' grasp of the security situation. But if they are increasingly aware that what they have created in Iraq is a disaster, they seem at a loss to know what to do about it.The core question to be addressed is this: is the continuing presence of US military forces in Iraq part of the solution or part of the problem?As occupying power, the US bears responsibility for Iraq under international law, and is duty-bound to try to leave it in better shape than it found it. But there is no sign of that happening.The time has therefore come to consider whether a structured withdrawal of US and remaining allied troops, in tandem with a workable handover of security to Iraqi forces and a legitimate and inclusive political process, can chart a path out of the current chaos.Faced with a withdrawal timetable, Iraqis who currently feel helpless will know that the opportunity to craft a better future lies in their hands.Take security. Iraqi forces are being rebuilt to take over front-line tasks. This is slow work, but that is not the real problem. It is that those forces already trained cannot stand alongside a US military that daily rains thousands of tonnes of projectiles and high explosives on their compatriots. Each time there is a siege of Fallujah or Najaf, with the US using firepower that kills civilians by the hundred, these Iraqi forces melt away. Until eventual withdrawal, there would have to be a policy of military restraint, imposed above all on those US commanders who have operated without reference to their own superiors, let alone the notionally sovereign Iraqi government.Politically, if next year's elections are to have any chance of reflecting the will of the Iraqi people, the process must be opened up. Last month's national conference or proto-assembly was monopolised by expatriate politicians aligned with the interim government of Iyad Allawi. The only way national coalitions can be woven from Iraq's religious and ethnic patchwork is by including the opposition to the occupation. That means negotiating with the insurgents, probably through religious leaders of the stature of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. It also means an amnesty, which should help Iraqi authorities acquire the legitimacy to crush jihadist and other hold-outs.Ideally, the US would accompany withdrawal by stating it has no intention of establishing bases in Iraq, and instead wishes to facilitate regional security agreements. That would be more stabilising than the current policy of bullying neighbours such as Iran and Syria, whose borders with Iraq the US in any case cannot control.None of this will be less than messy. But whether Mr Bush or John Kerry wins the upcoming election, the US will eventually have to do something like this. Chaos is a great risk, and occupiers through the ages have pointed to that risk as their reason for staying put. But chaos is already here, and the power that is in large part responsible for it must start preparing now to step aside and let the Iraqis try to emerge from it.--Milan RaiJustice Not Vengeancelandline 0845 458 9571 (UK) +44 1424 428 792 (int)mobile phone (0)7980 748 555http://www.j-n-v.org/.

Enough for now, i think,,, have a good day.
me*

please click ont he link NOWWW.

http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Browse.asp?hGuestid=t4q6mr&hSession=Recent

Hey...
the number 1000 had come in front of my eyes twice today, so i decidedd to write somethign about it...
first time, most of you already know it, is that today the total sum of american soldures killed iniraq become 1000 person, it measn we have 1000 grieving mother, one thousand crying wife, or maybe one thousand orphan, and thousands of sad friends.
all of the soldures, and their beloved ones, are victums of the decission of one sick person.
the other 1000, is the unread emails in mom's email account.
hmmm, i would love to chat with you, if you are interested, add me to your msn messenger as khalidjarrar@hotmail.com or to yahoo messenger as khalidjarrar
thank you..
me*

Hi:
i finished my final exams, finally, i hope to pass them all, if i did, i am officially a senior engineering student, OUCH..It hurts when i hear it, i feel OLD!
cant we stop growing up at a certain age?
:))
i bet women are cheering up for the idea in front of their monitors right now:))))
anyway, if you feel like chatting, add me to your msn messenger, as khalidjarrar@hotmail.com
it would be nice to chat with you:)
take care...
me*

this is the link for the terrible terrible accedent, my italian friens and an iraqi engineer who is also my friend were kidnapped.
its disgusting how things are done in the name of religions, Bosh goes to war in the name of Christ, criminals kidnap innocent people in the name of Islam, then all out of the sudden, they want 5 million Dollars, last time i checked they wanted to stop the hijab law?
BULSHIT.
UPP, Un Ponte Per, the NGO they work for, believes in peace, and refuses to keep a single weapon in their Organization.
me*(

I heard that Alyawir and the minister have been involved in an affair for years, and they had a baby, yes you guessed, its Allawi, and now since Allawi grew up and became famous Alyawir had to marry the minister , who was working in a small market back then, to avoid a scandal. Ok i made up the whole story, just kidding:)))
anyways.... i hope the French journalists will be released soon, news about them are good this far. i don't know who to blame for these actions, should we blame the extremists who make these things, or the "other side" whoever that is?
Am i for kidnapping innocent people? No! Am i for kidnapping at the first place? Sure not! But wait, when some crazy guys kidnapped some drivers and workers, they actually made their countries pull out their forces from Iraq, is that a good thing?
War is an extremists' action, kidnapping seems like a reasonable reaction, for some. Its all a dirty job, i know, and i grieve the Italian journalist, who was also working for the red cross, and i hope that the French journalists go home safe...
The French issue is puzzling me...
Why does the French government want a problem with the Muslims in France? We all know it wont work nicely with this new law, that prohibits religious symbols in schools. In away, this law effects Muslims speciously, since hijab, is not a symbol, its a must, a girl cant go out without wearing it, while wearing a crucifix is not a must, and the same goes for the Jewish small hat that i don't know its name.
Franca always took a good stand towards Arab and Muslims, this law is something i cant understand.
Since Brazil is IN, i agree with what Carolina says about this... i hope all this mess ends soon...
me*