Prayers for Vengeance

Another dispatch from Dahr Jamail, writing from Iraq.

His friend Abu Talat is very somber. Abu tells Dahr about the difficulty and hardships he and his family are experiencing. The US military helicopters circle his neighborhood until the wee hours of the morning. He feels trapped in his own country. Abu says that everyone is praying for God to take revenge on the Americans. EVERYONE.

Another man Salam from Baghdad shows up with a wild look in his eyes, beads of sweat on his forehead. His friend was just killed, one of his best friends. His friend's family is very poor. Twenty-one of them live in a house with three bedrooms. Salam says they are good people. Salam was working as a translator for the military because he had to earn money to support his family. But he worked for TITAN, a private security company which is part of the coalition. It was a matter of starve to death or work for TITAN. One of Salam's relatives is missing, has been for six days. Today his body was brought to the family by someone who found it on the road. The man had been shot twice in the chest and twice in the head. There were visible signs of torture on the body, and four bullet shells were found in his pants pockets-the shells used to kill him.

This is life in Baghdad today. Salam says it has always been this way in Iraq, but not ever has it been like this. The relentless threat of being kidnapped or car bombed or robbed. These are common occurrences every day. The hope for peace and true sovereignty in Iraq dims a little more with each passing day.

Do you suppose the God that Abu and Salam are praying to is the same God who talks to George Bush?

[Click on the blog title to read Dahr Jamail's dispatch.]