In reply to:

continuing of Arabic hate towards the US



This is one opinion that I shared with you, although to a lesser degree, concerning "fall out" from the current war in Iraq. But consider this: Blaming the US for all hatred directed towards it by the Muslim (not Arabic) world is akin to blaming rape victoms for wearing sexy clothes. Think about it, it's very similar. "So, just because we should have known they were going to fly two planes into the Twin Towers we never should have stationed troops in Saudi Arabia to protect them from an invading army."

But all of this is really irrelevant. The point is, the Iraqis are joyous for this. ABSOLUTELY BEYOND WORDS: THEY ARE SO HAPPY. Thinking that the televised coverage of Dearborn, Michigan was being blown out of proportion, I drove over to East Dearborn to check it out for myself. People had been calling into radio stations since 8:30am saying how there were parades of people driving up and down the main streets waving American and Iraqi flags, honking their horns and dancing in the street. Then I heard NPR mention this and report from the scene. Donald Rumsfeld even mentioned the reaction in Michigan during the opening of his press conferance. So I looked it up online when I got to my PC and posted a link here. But for some reason, I had to see it for myself. Perhaps news crews were there at a certain time and people hammed it up for the cameras. Maybe it was all staged. Or if it wasn't, maybe it was just a fleeting moment that passed with the lunch hour.

Let me tell you this: What I saw there at 8pm tonight - a full 12 hours after it began - was one of the most wonderful things I've seen in my life. There were (and are) hundreds upon hundreds of Arabic peoples (mostly Iraqi, but not exclusively) celebrating in the streets. I have never seen so many people, so happy in my life. This even topped when the Wings won the Stanley Cup (and even my friends in Toronto consider Detroit to be "HockeyTown") celebrations - and these people were sober. Seriously though, I can't over stress how happy these people are.

I really wish I could put into words what I saw and felt. I imagine you'd have to know this community to really understand the scope of it. However this community has never been a flag waving group of pro-American people. If anything, they have never been afraid to speek out on favoritism in Palestine, our questioning of Arabs after 9/11 or our past in-action in Iraq. But today I saw something I thought I'd never see: make shift stores on the street selling American flags on the sidewalk with a line wrapped around the block. There were cars, hundreds of them lined up for miles, horns blaring, lights flashing and people hanging out of moonroofs and windows waving American flags and home-made signs saying "We Won" and "Saddam: Iraqis Enemy". I wish I could share the joy on these people's faces with you, but I can't even begin to express the sight. I was litterally at the edge of tears. I'm even moved by it now as I write this. This isn't something I saw on TV or read about. I was there, less than an hour ago.

And, there were no television crews present. This wasn't a publicity stunt. This was people celebrating. Iraqi people celebrating for their families that are still in Iraq and for their homeland that they love. And it appears that the same thing is happening in Iraq.

So how on Earth, does anyone have the right to say this wasn't the right thing to do? How can anyone, sitting behind their keyboard, mad at the Supreme Court, dare say that all these people - people who were more affected by the war with Iraq than you or I - don't deserve this new found hope? Would it have been better to wait for Saddam, then his sons, then his sons' sons to die in order for this to happen? Because that is the ONLY way anything would have changed if action wasn't taken. France promised to veto ANY resolution, no matter what it said or what timeframe it laid out if it had ANY mention of holding the (former) Iraqi government accountable for its actions.

What would have made these conspiracy theory weavers happy? Would they sleep better at night knowing that the Iraqi people are living under tyranny so long as the Security Council was okay with it too? How do they explain their glee that they felt when they made little comments saying the US's war plan was failing? Do they get a little skip in their step everytime the US death toll goes up because it means that Bush looks bad? I swear, some people posting here sound as if they are wishing for our troops to get slaughtered and Iraqi homes to get bombed just so that they can jump around and say "I told you so!"

But anyway, back to my experience here in Dearborn. It solidified one thing in my mind. I truely believe that the Iraqi people will see us as liberators and will build a successful democracy (despite France's official stance that the Middle-East is not sofisticated enough for one yet). They will be an ally. And so will Afghanistan, Qutar, Kuwait and Turkey. And these other countries who sent fighters to Iraq to fight the Western imperialists will soon find out - from the Iraqis themselves - that they had it all wrong.

EDIT: I've gone over this post a dozen times and I still can't express the joy that is on the street right now.
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Brad B.