Riverbend Has Left Iraq.

Excerpt Baghdad Burning :

The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness… How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death?

How is it that a border no one can see or touch stands between car bombs, militias, death squads and… peace, safety? It’s difficult to believe- even now. I sit here and write this and wonder why I can’t hear the explosions.

I wonder at how the windows don’t rattle as the planes pass overhead. I’m trying to rid myself of the expectation that armed people in black will break through the door and into our lives. I’m trying to let my eyes grow accustomed to streets free of road blocks, hummers and pictures of Muqtada and the rest...

 I think she knows what that the difference is being in a country that American neocons decided to "convert" as opposed to being in one in which they haven't been able to talk Americans into attacking, yet. 

Being in a nation that little Bushie hasn't been able to play with makes all the difference.

Now my allergy is attacking me.  Eyes wet, nose running.  

I didn't realize how much it affected me worrying about her and her family.  I dreaded opening the blog and finding that one of her close relatives had been killed by the monster we have unleashed or a short cryptic note that Riverbend herself had died. 

Still, though she and her immediate family are safe now, there are millions in Iraq that cannot leave due due to fewer resources.  

I'm betting that mainstream will play this up as Anne Frank of Iraq gets out and all's right in the world!

tags: iraq  war  displacement  refugees  syria  riverbend  immigration  emigration  

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