Beyond Chaos, Beyond Hell, Beyond Belief
The deaths keep piling up. Internecine strife, tribal and religious-motivated sectarian violence goes on without abatement. Those whose financial situation permitted them to flee have long since done so. The refugee-absorbing capabilities of neighbouring countries, however temporarily, are in a state of crisis. While some parts of Iraq are still relatively safe, beyond the attention of the deadly assaults of Shia on Sunni and Sunni upon Shia, much of Baghdad itself in in a state of siege long beyond critical.Just a few days earlier world attention was focused on the United States where a crazed gunman massacred 32 people before finally killing himself. It was a tragedy, a loss of bright students and their educators in a land which celebrates life, not death. A land which traditionally has offered the best to its citizens that life has to offer for those who live in a free society with abundant opportunities for social and educational, professional and economic advancement for those who strive to find fulfilment in quality of life.
Yet here, in Iraq, which was invaded by that most materially superior of powerful countries, life itself has been humbled to the point of dim existence for most of its inhabitants. Bitterly unrelenting struggles between militants reflecting religious sectarianism appears to be immune to the pleadings of their own religious clerics, their own elected parliamentarians, their own desperate people. Insurgents triumphantly flood over unprotected borders, well armed and well determined to ensure the country falls under the weight of its imposed anarchy.
Al-Qaeda now announces itself to be well ensconced within the country and meaning to stay there for good, to translate what once was a begrudging, but livable tolerance between the Shia and the Sunnis to Islamofascism with strict adherence to a fundamentalist Islam and the complete eschewing of any instances of Western thought or social influence must be the order of the day. Of course, neighbouring Iran feels she has something to say about this conversion and it's entirely possible that a complete conflagration and ensuing carnage may yet obtain.
In its absence, however, the Islamists are performing a fill-in position with daily bloody carnage bringing the civilian population to a state well beyond desperate. Where it is possible to exact murderous tolls on a frightened population to the tune of hundreds a day, in the most unspeakably vicious manner, and where no one feels safe, and everyone worries about their ability to transcend the present, never mind the future, human hope lies dead and buried.
No one is safe, nowhere appears to be a refuge from violence, from the Iraqi parliament buildings located within an ostensible 'safe zone' to bazaars and public markets, to job placement agencies, to local streets, schools and hospitals. How is it possible, sane people ask, that there exists human beings so devoid of compassion as to explode devices with the intent to blow apart people worshipping in their mosques, mothers and children shopping, riding to and fro on public transportation?
Who is possessed of the patience and the wisdom and the influence to bring sanity to bear, to bring a halt to the carnage? If we are to wait for the appearance of Allah in person to lecture his devout followers we are doomed.
Labels: World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 20, 2007
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