Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Equivalence of Grief By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) April 12, 2003 American Grief Iraqi Grief “Tonight in Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane, under cover of war, while the world is not looking, Jewish fundamentalists are moving into an armed apartment block on land which belongs to the Palestinians; in the White House, Christian fundamentalists dream of moving on to murder and mayhem in countries beyond count; and on the stony hillsides of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Muslim fundamentalists dream of moving on to murder and mayhem in countries beyond count. The trade union of international politicians exercises an ever more Stalinist grip, moving countries and armies to wars they do not want. Only the people say no.” [3] Only the people say no. And the people of the world have come out as another power to reckon with. They flocked on the streets in hundreds of thousands. Students organized human chain, ex...

Dear Readers, What can powerless people do against endless might and frightening sights of poor Iraqis’ colonial fate? Is history repeating itself? Is this the first step of re-colonization that the world’s most nations thought of things of the past? Charlatans and collaborators, in Iraq and around the globe are out in full force to give a new color of this illegal conquest. Even those opposing states in UN have begun to show their naked back-flippancy. Facing the incomparable economic and military power, the poor feels helpless. What can they do? Tariq Ali provided a thorough analysis on Iraq war last week in New Left Review magazine, citing relevant examples from history. Perhaps, it’s only the “powerless” people might be the only refuge left for the billions of voiceless mass striving for achieving peace. If history holds true in all its turning point from past, it will be the peaceful people opposing brutal wars and deceitful exploitation, in forefront again confronting the ...

Dear Readers, American "very precise" bombs have killed possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians and maimed, blinded and injured many thousands more. The exact number will never be known. David Corn has raised the timely question: "Should US Pay for Civilian Casualties?" I say, why not? Though in many occasions leaders in the power podium repeatedly stressed that they are "investigating" on civilian casualty report, there were occasions when they had to admit the killings because of international media and charity organizations were the witness of bombings or victims. In Afghanistan, many thousands innocent civilians were bombed as well. Did Bush pay for those victim's family? Who paid for the medical costs and rehabilitation for the Afghanistani injured? And now that many more thousands of Iraqi civilians' dead bodies scattered around Iraq, unknown number of injured Iraqi spending their day and night in agony, in pain from lost limbs, broken b...

Sandals and Shoes of War By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) April 10, 2003 Poor Iraqis. They are out in the streets, stealing couches from Sheraton hotel, piece of door from the Olympic stadium. Mother and son were carrying meager window curtains wrapped around neck. The dictators are “deeply buried” or given safe passageway through never-to-be-told side deal. And the subjugated, bombarded and maimed Iraqis are scavenging anything they can put their hands on. At least this is the picture American media showed in glowing daylight. The dramatic destruction of old Saddam’s statue must be a sure hit along with the rosy kisses of Iraqi men on American soldiers. This is the moment Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and many others in their war cabinet were salivating to see from the onslaught of this confrontation. But now that war is dwindling down in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, though a few places are still defiant to be subjugated, “game is over” uttered the Iraqi UN Ambassador i...

Dear Readers, Now that Baghdad is apparently taken by the American forces, “thank you Bush” was said by “very happy” Iraqi man in looting spree in the middle of chaos and anarchy, New York Times editorial once again gives a good suggestion to try to repair American ruined marshmallow credibility by working with the neutral international community in their search for WMD. Before war, in UN and in many political rallies, it was claimed that Iraq posses plenty of WMD and it was given as the major reason in conquering Iraq. Now the time has come to bring back the UN weapons inspectors to do their work, they “will be needed to verify the laboratory results and ensure a strict chain of custody to avoid charges of tampering with the evidence.” Can the world expect scam free diligence from Bush administration on this sensitive issue? Certainly there are good folks in the government who still posses their conscience in the right place. After incurring thousands of deaths and injuries...

Dances of Wolves Among Perpetual Wars By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) April 9, 2003 She is one writer who is fearlessly writing against all shadowy neo-conservative agenda. “The big question about the war was, how much blood could Americans bear? Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were determined to lead America out of its post-Vietnam, post-Mogadishu queasiness with force and casualties, to change the culture to accept war as a more natural part of a superpower's role in the world.”[1] – writes Maureen Dowd in New York Times editorial. People are dying all over Iraq. American and British soldiers are getting killed, Iraqi soldiers are obliterated by relentless bombardments from the sky and tank shells, and civilians caught in the middle of flying bullets, mortar rounds and surface to air missiles, are trembling in fear, their loved ones’ blasted corpses are piling up in overflowing Iraqi morgues without electricity, even thousands of them are still remained in dusty sand, around th...

Journalists at Crosshair Journalists at Crosshair By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) April 8, 2003 They are not even sparing the journalists. Three were killed today when “coalition” bombs shattered the hotels the journalists were staying. What form of “liberation” is this? Liberation from a dictator or liberation from truth? These journalists were covering the war, acting independently, not cloying with the military, were not “in-bedded” as the others apparently are. Perhaps for their reluctance from being bought out outright is the cause of their violent demise? Regardless of who commits it, Iraqi or the “coalition”, they and their leadership should be held responsible for committing these criminal acts. Today’s assaults have seen the deaths of Tariq Ayub, an Al Jajeera journalist reporting from Baghdad, Taras Protsyuk a Ukranian cameraman reporting for Reuters and Jose Couso who worked for Spanish Telecinco. The Associated Press reports that...

Dear Readers, Even the Chinese can do better. The propaganda that is. Nicholas D. Kristof’s “The Ring of Truth” is an engaging article on the ridiculous propaganda warfare floundering from both sides of this conflict. When the Iraqi Information Minister Mr. Shahaf describes how easy it was to route the Americans, it was most certainly propaganda. And there are American propagandas that bolster outrageous claims that no one buys into. Like the incredible Mr. Shahaf’s exuberant hollow claim of victory in war, American war machine do not have much credibility in the portrayal of the war as well. It is not surprising that America is in the winning side. It has superb technological advantage and also for last twelve years’ bitter sanctions placed over Iraq made sure that Iraq could not mount any robust resistance. Arundhati Roy grinded this point well: "Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New...

"We Germans often are asked if we are proud of our country. To answer this question has always been a burden. There were reasons for our doubts. But now I can say that the rejection of this preemptive war on the part of a majority in my country has made me proud of Germany. After having been largely responsible for two world wars and their criminal consequences, we seem to have made a difficult step. We seem to have learned from history.” – These are the solemn words of Gunter Grass, the 1999 Nobel Prize winner in literature from Germany. His article is attached at the end of this message. Indeed Germany knows how much sheer pain and devastations that war brings to millions of people around the world. Germany knows it well the “criminal consequences” of war arising from the mangled bodies of victims, the skeletal fractures, the mashed and severed limbs of women, children and men in the middle of ruinous huts and urban serenity. Hitler was remembered and castigated as the villa...