News Intelligence Analysis
Sandstorm In Iraq
by Peggy Gish
(CPT )
8 August, 2005
We wake up to the dull orange sky hanging thickly all around
the earth, dimming the sun. Every breath we take is one full
of dust.
Buildings across the street are hidden in the haze. During the
night,
a dust storm has rolled into Baghdad.
The streets are quiet, void of the usual traffic jams. People
stay in
their homes, yet some hurry by our windows, many with cloth held
up
to their nose. We postpone our trip to Sadr City. We catch up
on writing
and meeting agenda. As the afternoon progresses, it becomes lighter
and we are able to find a few shops open with produce and bread,
but most are closed.
It is reminiscent of the dust storm in the early days of the
2003
invasion of Iraq, when the sky actually turned a dull red, changing
into an orange color deeper than we see today. The dust jammed
war
machines, and for a time, the fighting stopped. Many of us saw
God's
hand in it, saying "no" to this tragic onslaught, even
if just for a day.
Even the world's strongest army could not stop the wind and the
sand.
Today the sandstorm temporarily freezes a different scene,
a society on
edge -- beaten down and bound up by frustration and fear. It
freezes
the day for the mother hanging out her laundry, the worker going
to
his/her job, the child wanting to play outside or on the roof,
the
maintenance workers on the streets, or one repairing the
broken electric cable near our house.
But it also freezes the soldiers' automatic weapons, the gears
on the
humvees, visibility of those setting out bombs in the streets.
It freezes the
meetings of representatives from all over Iraq gathering in the
Green Zone
to hammer out the snags on the new constitution. It freezes the
arguments
and the compromises. It freezes the sound bites in the news articles
waiting to be written.
Later we find out that it failed to freeze armed men from
the Badr
organization from entering Baghdad's municipal building to depose
the city's mayor. It probably didn't freeze the different armed
players
from planning future attacks.
By the afternoon there is a thick coating of dust on the trees,
the walks,
on the inside as well as the outside of homes. It reminds me
of the heavy
weight of power seeking groups, in this and other governments,
putting
their own interests over the well-being of their people or being
willing
to trade away oil or autonomy for favors from the US.
It reminds me of the heavy weight being thrust upon Iraqi society,
on the
ordinary people whose needs and well-being will be sacrificed,
of secret
intelligence officers and special police forces trained to carry
out state
sanctioned terror. It freezes and weighs down, but doesn't change
the
persistent longings and dreams of an ancient people still wanting
God's hand to intervene in a deeper, long lasting way.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an ecumenical violence-reduction
program
with roots in the historic peace churches. Teams of trained peace
workers
live in areas of lethal conflict around the world. CPT has been
present
in Iraq since October, 2002.
To learn more about CPT, please visit http://www.cpt.org.
Photos of our projects may be viewed at http://www.cpt.org/gallery
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