Four years on, bombs are still going off and no one seems to be winning. The only thing that is certain is that scores of people die everyday. For the lucky few who manage to flee to Jordan and surrounding countries, life has not been that kind either. Caught up in a limbo and in a country that is not their own, their stories have never really been told. Not only did they leave a country where they were in mortal danger, but they have left behind lives, relatives and loved ones (dead or alive) that they may never see again.

In less than a year, George Bush Jr will leave the Oval Office. He has it easy, former presidents lead pretty comfy lives with lucrative deals waiting for them. But the lives of those destroyed by his war in Iraq will never return to the way it was once he is out. And I guess the current lives of families like those of Amira, Aseel Qaradaghi, Hassan Jabr and Zeinab Majid in Amman is not a concern for the man whose irresponsible stupidity have destroyed.

Read their stories in the link below. I know a majority of us are suffering from Iraq fatigue. But reading their stories serves to remind us that even though Saddam Hussein was a murdering tyrant, their lives under him was relatively much more stable and comfortable then what it currently is under Bush. And no, the democracy and freedom that was promised with the invasion force has not arrived. I doubt those two ideals are even remotely in the minds of Iraqis who struggle just to survive on a day to day basis. The only "freedom" they have now is a lawless one that allows extreme groups (local and foreign) to kill as many Iraqis as they want.

New York Times - Jordan Yields Poverty and Pain for the Well-Off Fleeing Iraq

I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
'Cos tonight
We can be as one, tonight.

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead-end street.
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Oh, let's go.

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
Torn apart.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
'Cos tonight
We can be as one, tonight.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away.
I'll wipe your tears away.
I'll wipe your tears away.
I'll wipe your bloodshot eyes.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality.
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On...

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday...

Labels: iraq, middle-east