Sami Rasouli with children from Iraq
Remember Iraq? We have gone through a reversal of the last 6 years. Now all anyone talks about is Afghanistan, instead of Iraq, a country we basically destroyed and have now left behind. Not entirely, but it certainly is not a country we are focusing on at the moment. People who want to profit are still there: the oil companies and the contractors and mercenaries, but they are not helping the average Iraqi who has inadequate clean water and medical care. Iraqis still live in conditions of frequent violence and fear, car bombs and other threats, (though not as frequently as before) and many of them still desperately need our help.
I attended a talk last Tuesday night by Sami Rasouli, a well-known Iraqi American originally from Najaf, now from Minneapolis, who makes regular trips back to his birth land, Iraq. He is involved in several Iraq-American peace groups, most recently the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. He also founded the Muslim Peacemaker Teams project. The purpose of the Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project (IARP) is:
“. . . to promote reconciliation between the people of the United States and Iraq in response to the devastation affecting Iraqi families, society and culture. IARP recognizes the common humanity of the people of Iraq and the people of the United States.”
He talked for over an hour and I will be putting his remarks into a podcast. [The podcast page is here]. The main gist of his remarks was a frustration that people in Iraq need our help and they feel forgotten, yet they don’t have the basics of life that we take for granted. There are still 5 million Iraqi refugees scattered all over the region. Poverty and unemployment are high. There are many children without parents, people without electricity and water. Living conditions for many Iraqis are very tough. The middle class in Iraq is decimated. The best scientists and doctors are gone. Over 1.3 million people are dead, according to Rasouli, and most of them were civilians. The country is nothing like before, and he said very simply, daily life is so hard that the people “miss Saddam.”
No, the Obama administration is not focused on reparations to the people of Iraq, at least not at this time. Our money is currently going to pay off warlords in Afghanistan, as you have probably read about in the news.
The profit vultures have descended and that includes oil companies and contractors who are not helping the people. Rasouli mentioned new good websites for news on Iraq, including http://www.naqash.org, and others. He also works for peace organizations devoted to delivering clean water and food to people who really need it within Iraq. We should not forget about what has happened there just because Afghanistan is now the Country of the Hour, and especially, we need to remember the people there who need our help.
Please considering looking into the peace organizations he is involved in. The IARP is joined by the Iraqi Art Project, and the Letters for Peace and the Water for Peace project. Water for Peace is:
. . . . a “service learning project for schools, businesses, individuals, etc., interested in promoting peace, reconciliation, safety and health for the children of Iraq through the donation of water sanitation systems so desperately needed by thousands of young Iraqis devastated by war.”
To sponsor a water filter by making a donation to a school or hospital please contact: info@mpt-iraq.org. To make an online contribution, visit: www.mpt-iraq.org.
Some media to find out more real news about Iraq, that Rasouli recommended:
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