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A boy holds an Iraqi flag during a protest in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, March 24, 2007. Thousands of displaced families took to the streets in Kerbala on Saturday, demonstrating against a government decision to ask them to move out from the government buildings they have occupied. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammad (IRAQ)

We've come to the end of the week in which we marked the fourth anniversary of our occupation of Iraq, the week in which some celebrated the passage of the supplemental while others despaired at the total inadequacy of that legislation. It's been another week full of pundits and "experts" and advisors, a week of so much "news" about Iraq,   And yet, in the middle of all the debates and strategies and maneuvers, the analysis and pronouncements, the voices always missing are those of the Iraqis themselves.

Tonight, let's take the time to listen to the voices of those who bear the daily cost of our inability to end this war.

Just broadcast this week, a two part documentary - Eyewitness Iraq - is a sampling taken from the reporting of Hugh Sykes, a BBC World Service reporter who has covered Iraq since the invasion. While the stories here have been chosen by a western reporter, listen closely and you can hear the sounds of life in Iraq and the true voices of Iraqis.

Another news source that offers a chance to explore Iraqi voices is the blog kept by the Baghdad bureau of the McClatchy News Service, Inside Iraq.  Sahar's latest, Silence is Golden, tells of what she misses in the midst of sirens and gunfire and explosions:

You never really appreciate something until you lose it.

I never really paid any attention to the bliss of silence, until I lost it.

It’s not that I don’t care for the loss of electricity;

It’s not that I don’t care for the loss of security;

It’s not that I don’t care for the loss family get-togethers, or any of the ordinary things you would take for granted living in the Baghdad of my memories, like taking a walk.

No, all these things I do miss; but silence, I miss most of all.

You can read the rest here .  

Or browse through the entries at Iraq Blog Count and at Olive Branch Network. IraqBlogCount provides links to over 100 Iraqi blogs. The opinions range across the spectrum and the listings are updated often.  OliveBranch Network pulls together blog posts from Iraq - again, the views are diverse, the posts range from political thoughts and descriptions of life as a refugee to poems and art.

One of the participants of OliveBranch is Khalid Jarrar, a brother of Raed Jarrar. Khalid's blog Tell Me A Secret has a heartbreaking post on The Fourth Year:

So as a conclusion i have to say: That it's shameful enough, and hurtful enough to say, and sad enough yet truthful enough, that for most Americans it actually requires terrorism that kills innocent people, and resistance that kills thousands of Americans and burns billions of American money, to make them demand an end to an occupation, but still basing on their own losses and not because of the feeling of responsibility or guilt over what they did to Iraq, now correct me if i am wrong here, but there is something seriously wrong with this moral equation here.

Anas Altikriti, an Iraqi living in London also commemorated the anniversary. His post on the Guardian's Comment is Free site is titled Victims of War:

Exactly four years after the decision to launch a massive military assault on Iraq, the country lies in ruins.

(snip)

Now we find the country and its people facing times much worse than they ever were, even in those dark days. There has been a total and complete collapse of a modern society, which once boasted one of the most advanced healthcare, education and industrial systems throughout the developing world, and which saw the total eradication of illiteracy and the rate of infant mortality reduced to levels better than even those of Spain and Italy. It produced dozens of scientists from all walks of life every single year. This is an indictment of the western values that George Bush and Tony Blair continuously flaunt going to war over. Politicians and scientists will disagree as to whether the number of Iraqis killed since March 2003 amount to 75,000 or 750,000. Take your pick as to whom you find more credible; but it destructs any moral argument we may have to propose that things have gone relatively well since "only" 75,000 people have been killed over the course of four years.

(snip)

And what of those that have seen their lives obliterated? What of the children who can no longer venture outside their front doors, never mind go to school? The academics who can no longer study or produce works of science; the women who constantly fear rape, abduction or the loss of a loved one; the sick who cannot find treatment; the detained, abused and tortured on mere suspicion or for being at the wrong place at the wrong time; the afraid, the traumatised, the terrorised, the injured, wounded and the disabled?

What of the nation which never in its modern existence came to see its citizens according to their sect, ethnicity, religion, or nationalistic orientations, yet now finds that not only its political system and constitution - parachuted in all the way from Uncle Sam's back yard - but their entire social and civil structures divided along lines that were, until March 2003, invisible (indeed, non-existent)?

(snip)

Our politicians have a lot to answer for. History will hold them to account and will see to it that their respective legacies are tainted with the faces, shredded limbs and blood of those who endured the ramifications of their decisions, votes and statements made from the luxury of high offices in London, Washington and elsewhere. But before that happens we, the people of free and democratic nations, must. Otherwise, we too will have sold out on our humanity and become complicit in one of the crimes of modern history. 

I will be sending Altikriti's piece to my senators tomorrow as they consider their next step and following up with more - it's way past time for us to listen to the people whose land we now occupy and to do our best to give them a seat at the table.

 PS - In my Saturday news post at Today In Iraq this week, there's a link to a moving music video produced by Stirling Newberry of the Agonist . The music is from Stirling's Piano Sonata #3 in C "Ares" - click here for the youtube: Ares .