The Iraq War may be Over But the Grudge Ain`t

The war may be over for the Americans but it is far from over for some who lost their faith in a just and fair world                                       

… The war may be over but the grudge ain`t.

By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat / Staff Writer 

What you see is not always what you get…

As the American troops are gradually pulling out of Iraq, the Americans find relief in the news that the war in Iraq has ended and the boys are finally coming home to America.

But is it all that simple?

Has the almost seven years of fighting in Iraq -against I don’t exactly know whom- come to an end?

Has the heavy artillery firing and bombardment with even heavier brutality stopped?

Has the destabilizing of Iraq, the sabotage that encouraged the unprecedented looting of the national Iraqi museum and the vast heritage of ancient antiquities of a land considered by archeologists and historians as one of the cradles of world civilizations ceased?

Has the bloodshed and killing ended?

Are the innocent lives of nearly 1.4 million Iraqis deemed enough collateral damage?

Has the mission- if any- behind invading Iraq been accomplished?

Have the American troops rid the free world of the imminent danger of the Iraqi arsenal of weapons of mass destruction?

Is the world a safer place now that Saddam Hussein is gone?

Has terrorism been exterminated?

Have the resourceful CIA managed to locate any al Qaeda armies of mujahedeen and rid the region and the world of their threat to world peace?

Even more important could Americans forget all about those bloody and ruthless seven years and only think of them as history now.

If the Americans managed to erase the memory of those agonizing years, I doubt the Iraqis and a lot of Arab peoples will ever do.

Some wounds never heal

War is not just artillery batteries and F16, it’s not just drones and bombardments. It is not just press conferences in which some US governor of Iraq – Paul Bremer– announces with victorious grin that “ …We got him”

 The ugly part of war- especially the war against innocent civilians- is the bitterness and the grudge it leaves behind.

War is about losing your loved ones. War is about losing the home you were born in. war is about waking up one morning to discover that you lost your yesterday. War is about losing your pride and hope for tomorrow.

War in Iraq is about a historically proud nation- despite everything- humiliated and tampered with.

The US could appoint a government- under occupation- and call it a democratic government.

The US could keep small military forces -to secure the pumping of Iraqi oil- and call it helping the Iraqi security forces to keep order and prevent- the inevitable- sectarian war.

The American officials could shake hands with the chosen Iraqi politicians and smile in front of the press cameras, but the ordinary Iraqi citizen will only – if allowed- throw shoes – an insult in Arabic traditions- at any American president.

The white house could claim that unleashing democracy and freedom has been the real target behind the invasion of Iraq while journalist reports and wikileaks documents have shown and revealed the American collaboration  with Saddam`s intelligence and security officers to kill and torture thousands of unarmed civilian Iraqis.

Some wounds heal fast …some won’t heal at all.

Destroyed buildings and roads will be built again. Schools and hospitals will be opened again. But what could remedy a soul in pain? What will ease the bitterness of watching one’s life shatters?

… Only revenge could cure helplessness and despair?                    

Only retribution could alleviate the grudge and the indignation.

The war may be over for the Americans but it is far from over for some who lost their faith in a just and fair world.                                      

… The war may be over but the grudge ain`t.

You can’t bring a coalition of international armies to tear Iraq and the Iraqis apart and expect the Iraqis- after seven chaotic and savage years – to wave good bye to the Americans and international troops as they leave.                                                                                                          

We can’t expect all Iraqis and Arabs in the Middle East to bear no heart feelings against the leaving American military and to simply smile and say … “we’ll miss you, .. come back soon”

Small terrorist attacks inside USA

 Given what happened in Iraq, the US is expected to periodically encounter individual and improvised acts of terrorism carried out by some people from the Arab and Muslim world- by the way, Somalia is an Arabic country-who couldn’t live with unvindicated soul. Who couldn’t swallow the grudge they held against the American forces and who were recruited or their operations were facilitated by a covert intelligence agency- most probably located in the Middle East -that is keen to somehow contact those desperate men who will conveniently fit in as potential terrorists.                                                                                                           

The American authorities will mostly manage to abort these primitive and improvised attacks of vendetta in time. Investigations will likely fail to fully justify or comprehend the motive behind these attacks but in the end the American authorities will be inclined- as usual- to link it to al Qaeda.

America has launched a perpetual war on terrorism and in doing so she invented a phantom enemy and even gave it a name that never existed before 9/11.

Ten years now and the American military are still hunting a ghost.   America failed in Iraq and is terribly failing in Pakistan and Afghanistan not because of some lack of forces or funds but mainly due to lack of tangible and genuine enemy. The tragic side of this war on terrorism is that it turned to be a war on civilians and resistance forces.

The American soldiers are thrown into strange land only to find themselves without any clue, not fighting an obvious enemy but having to hunt down and kill civilians who did nothing except defend their homes and families and who never invited massacres- like in Fallujah or Baghdad- nor deserved to be called insurgents by the American administration and media.

The American soldiers went to Iraq with a preconceived inferior idea about the Iraqis. Some of the American soldiers were made to believe that they were fighting a heroic and just war in a country packed with subhumans.

True stories from the war inside Iraq

 In a- Must See- National Geographic documentary titled “Inside The Iraq war”…In which David Bellavia, an American sergeant tells his story in Iraq when his unit stormed into Fallujah – November 2004 – and his experience of hunting and stabbing to death a what seemed then as an Iraqi insurgent. Sergeant Bellavia recalls these horrible moments as he wakes up to the fact that he was merely hunting down another human being- neither an insurgent nor an enemy- who was only scared and running for his life.

 To him this was the worst moments of his life for he discovered how deluded and misinformed he and his fellow soldiers were.                 

Al Qaeda turned out to be an imaginary enemy. Nevertheless and due to the American reluctance to admit it, extremists and militants from all around the Middle and Far East decided to play it the American way, they decided to give America what she’s been begging for, they gave her al Qaeda.

So a lot of ethnic and militant groups in the Middle East began to affiliate themselves to the so called al Qaeda. We began to hear of the al Qaeda in the Arab peninsula, Algeria, Mauritania, Somalia, Yemen and in Iraq.

If that what the United States wants, that’s what the United States gets.

America started this global war to fight terrorism but she ended up with more people signing up to terrorism than ever before.

America started this war to retaliate the killing of 3000 innocent human beings but till now the soldiers return home to America with hundreds of untold horrible stories and the blood of one million plus innocent civilians trailing behind. 

For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website at; ashraf62.wordpress.com

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

Ashraf Ezzat is an Egyptian born in Cairo and based in Alexandria. He graduated from the faculty of Medicine at Alexandria University.

Keen not to be entirely consumed by the medical profession, Dr. Ezzat invests a lot of his time in research and writing. History of the ancient Near East and of Ancient Egypt has long been an area of special interest to him.

In his writings, he approaches ancient history not as some tales from the remote times but as a causative factor in our existing life; and to him, it’s as relevant and vibrant as the current moment.

In his research and writings, Dr. Ezzat is always on a quest trying to find out why the ancient wisdom had been obstructed and ancient spirituality diminished whereas the Judeo-Christian teachings and faith took hold and prospered.

Dr. Ezzat has written extensively in Arabic tackling many issues and topics in the field of Egyptology and comparative religion. He is the author of Egypt knew no Pharaohs nor Israelites.

He writes regularly at many well-known online websites such as Dissident Voice and What Really Happened.

Dr. Ezzat is also an independent filmmaker. His debut film was back in 2011 The Annals of Egypt Revolution and in 2012 he made Tale of Osiris a short animation for children.

In 2013 his short The Pyramids: story of creation was screened at many international film festivals in Europe. And he is working now on his first documentary “Egypt knew no Pharaohs nor Israelites”.