Six years after the invasion that toppled the brutal dictator

Few Iraqi bloggers managed to remember the 9th of April 2009, the day on which the formal dectator was removed from power. Lets start with the IraqiPundit who says:

On the sixth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, most Iraqis around the world are looking back at the last years with mixed emotions.Most are glad to see the Baathists go,sad to see the suffering of Iraqi civilians, and pleased that things are finally improving.

I think it's a fair general statement.

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Iraqi Mojo in a recent entry thinks the new Iraq really is better than the old Iraq and yes he has a good reason to say that:

Muntadhar Al Zaidi's sentence cut to one year
The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former US President George W Bush has had his sentence cut from three years to one year on appeal.
Good news. An Iraqi who dared throw his shoe at one of Saddam's guests would have been tortured to death. The new Iraq really is better than the old Iraq, at least in this respect.


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Touta described some mixed feelings in her house:

Today is Friday, the start of the seventh year since the start of the war. I hope that the 7th year will bring peace and happiness, and luck. But I don't know what to say. In fact, I am suffering from lack of emotion if anything.
Our house has chocolates and sweets littered around because of the anniversary. But they leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

Touta thinks that:

Celebrating the removal of Saddam from power is a completely different thing to celebrating the start of a war to me.

She explained further her view by saying:

Why would I celebrate the start of a war? Instead, I choose to remember and celebrate all those who lost their lives. All those who could have changed the world, but never had the chance.All those who selflessly sacrificed their lives. But with that, I also have to remember their killers. Which is why I cannot bring myself to ever say any war is Just or Good.And for this reason, I shall never celebrate the 9th of April


Well, surely she has a point to be made there .

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Eye Raki Hayder Al-Khoei couldn't hide his excitement as he remembered what happened on the 9th of April 2003 in Al-Fardos square (Paradise sq.) at the very heart of Baghdad :

I can't believe it has already been 6 years. It seems like yesterday I watched the statue of Saddam fall in a symbolic ceremony that indicated the Ba'ath regime was finished.

Then he rightly declared:

Iraq will prevail and it will become strong and remain a thorn in the eyes of its many enemies.

He also directed the following question for some journalists:

"Why do people expect so much so fast from a country whose people had to suffer 3 decades of unimaginable terror!?

I think it constitutes a valid question. More than 1000 suicidal cars exploded in Iraq targeted the innocent people in the public places such as schools, markets and mosques. No nation on earth faced such a barbaric and inhuman acts but the Iraqi nation. However, the brave Iraqi people never get tired and they never lose patience.Its a normal practice for the Iraqis after every single terrorist attack to mourn our martyrs then to send the wounded people to the hospitals, clean the place and start to work again. They never lost the hope for a united and prosperous Iraq, free of any sectarian tension.

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Jeffrey, in his post marking the six anniversary of removing the former dictator from power and commenting on Hayder's entry, rightly have listed the enemies of the emerging democracy in Iraq:

The last six years, as Hayder alludes to, have also seen many enemies of democracy try to destroy the new Iraq that was trying to pull itself from decades of dictatorship. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni Baathists, and the Shia militants all took the lives of many Iraqi civilians in their hopes of scuttling the formation of a democratic Iraq.

***

Al -Mutanabbi Street, is a visible example that shows the true nature of the hard working Iraqis. The street is the literary center of Baghdad, named after the most famous Iraqi Poet, Abu Al-Tayyib Al-Mutanabi (915-965 A.C.)who said the following powerful lines:

It is I whose words the blind could see,
And whose words the deaf had harkened.

I'm known to the horse, the night, the wilderness,
And to the sword, the spear and the plume.

This historic area which is filled with bookstores and street book stalls was attacked in March 2007. Many people were killed or wounded and the street also severely damaged including its famous Al-Shabandar Café.

Mohammed Al-Saedi wrote a beautiful entry about this lovely street together with pictures. Have a look and see for yourself the determination of the Iraqis to re-build their beloved country.

When I read Mohammed's conclusion, my heart was lifted up with joy and hope:

Things like these, and men like those are like winds of hope cleansing the streets of the city from the blood that they’re immersed in. Life is returning, and hope is growing.



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BaghdaDentist is talking about the situation in Baghdad after 6 years in the context of the recent suicidal cars:

some people may wonder what is the situatin in baghdad after six years of war from an iraqi view
*the security situation:
it is flactating from "semi-normal" to the worst on earth.what happened in the past few days showed that clearly.in one day 6 bombed cars exploded in different districts in baghdad,what about the "cyber dogs" that detects weapons???!!! and the checkpoints that are making all the traffic jams everywhere??

Yes, it's very painful that many innocent Iraqi people lost their lives and the Iraqi government should take actions to protect all the Iraqi citizens wherever they live.

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Only Layla Anwar of the Arab Woman Blue is talking about the fall of Baghdad:

The Fall of Baghdad as seen by an American - 2
Since most of you out there have short attention span, and reading long articles does not "turn you on" - I am presenting you with part 2 of my interview with Malcolm Lagauche - hoping you have already digested part 1 of the "Fall of Baghdad."


Hold your horses Layla, Baghdad has never failed and will never fail.

Layla is asking her interviewer this question:

what do you make of the current state of the Iraqi resistance ?


What resistance? !!!
Do you mean the killing of the Iraqi people by the brainless killers?
I can't see any viable resistance other than those terrorists who have no morals whatsoever. You have the chance to explain your view further.

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Finally I though I'll put the following video which has been taken for Abu Tahsin, the famous Iraqi man, on the 9th of April 2003:




He is shouting to say the following:

Thanks for whoever helped us to get freedom.

Hey people this's the traitor.
Do you know what has he done to the world?
Do you know what has he done to Iraq?
He killed our youth.
He killed our children.
He killed millions.

Abu Tahsin continued hitting the picture of the former dictator with his shoe shouting from the depth of his heart, mind and soul:

This's freedom.