Voices in the Wilderness : Ahmed Kharrufa

Voices from Iraq: Letters from Iraq

Letters, Diaries, and articles from people currently in Iraq

Viewing Category: Ahmed Kharrufa

Life in Baghdad: Ahmed Kharrufa

January 31, 2004 | category: Ahmed Kharrufa • Voices from Iraq

If you are visiting from Snopes.com regarding what life in Iraq and the occupation is really like the following account from an Iraqi man provides a good overview of the U.S. occupation, although it was written in January of 2004 making it almost a year old. For more recent information about the U.S. and U.K. lead occupation and its actual results please read some of the following areas on our website.

Voices from Iraq
Iraq Health
Experts on Iraq
Phyllis Bennis
Robert Fisk
the website Electronic Iraq
and the authors website which has some updates

26 January 04

Dear friends,
I’ve been writing this message for about two weeks. I am too lazy to finish it, and each time I leave the message for few days, some of its news become obsolete, I delete them and the message shrinks in size, so I wait few more days to add more news and so on. Another reason for not writing is thinking to myself: Ok I’ll write, then what? People will read this, feel sorry about us, then continue with their lives. If it has not been for some certain people who are insisting that I write something every once and a while, I will surely have stopped. At the beginning I used to write such messages because I felt a need to do so, now I write them only because I am asked to do so. I guess this greatly affected the style, and the type of news included. This one, will very likely be the last.

Comments from Ahmed Kharrufa

January 4, 2004 | category: Ahmed Kharrufa • Voices from Iraq

If you are visiting from Snopes.com or Daily Kos regarding what life in Iraq and the occupation is really like the following account from an Iraqi man provides a good overview of the U.S. occupation, although it was written in January of 2004 making it almost 2 years old. A lot has happened since then. While it is true that the US military has done some recontruction of Iraq’s infrastructure it is quite inadequate. Also, this war against Iraq did not start in March of 2003, the economic sanctions devastated the infrastructure of Iraq for over 14 years. For more recent information about the U.S. and U.K. lead occupation and its actual results please read some of the following areas on our website.

Our Home Page
The Home Page of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Iraq Health: updates, articles, and resources regarding Iraqi Health Care and the Infrastructure of Iraq, such as water, electricity, and disease.
For a good overview of the Water situation in Iraq see the Voices action Water Not War Floods The Streets Of New York City which gives many details and sources.
Voices from Iraq: a section devoted to Letters, Diaries, and articles from friends of Voices currently in Iraq.
Experts on Iraq: A collection of briefings and analysis on sanctions and war on Iraq.
the website Electronic Iraq which runs many UN news updates and more about infrastructure and health issues.
and the authors website which has some updates

Kathy Kelly
Voices in The Wilderness
Baghdad

Recently, George Capaccio sent me observations sent to him by “a friend of a friend.” I sent them on to Ahmed Kharrufa. Ahmed has been sending letters from Baghdad since the Occupation began. When I arrived in Baghdad last summer he and his family befriended Cathy Breen and I. Here is Ahmed’s response to the observations.

Dear George,

Kathy asked me to give some comments to the letter you’ve forwarded her. I feel flattered that Kathy trusted my judgment that much, and I hope that I am worthy of her trust. I’ll do my best to comment on each point as accurately as possible.

But let me tell you very little about myself so that you can better evaluate my comments. I work in a private company and not for the government. I don’t have financial problems. And I never personally had a problem with the old regime (which does not mean that I wanted it to stay, on the contrary, having the old regime gone is the only good thing that has happened). And I have no relation whatsoever to any of the old or the new parties. So my comments reflects the way as I see things, which is hopefully correct and unbiased.

So below are my comments for each point in the letter.