Both my parents are Iraqi Arabs from Baghdad. They escaped Iraq in the early 90s during Saddam's infamous Faith Campaign, where both my relatively leftist dad and my shia mother both fell under some prosecution. They left to Syria and then got resettled in the US thanks to a UN program. I speak fluent Arabic and meet up every year with my extended family in Jordan or Turkey, as both countries are relatively safe for Iraqis.

AMA about Iraqi politics, Iraqi society and the general cultural and political state of the Arab World. I will answer a few questions directly, but I'll keep the rest for late night today as I will go on a long ass drive in an hour.

    • Sankara [he/him,any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I can't sleep so I'll keep answering lol.

      What would you want Western libs to know from your experience or perspectives that they don’t seem to? Same question but about Western leftists.

      For libs, I'd say the most utterly disgusting thing I've seen is the rehabilitation of war criminals and murderers like Bush, Cheney and Bremer. It's impossible to overstate how much of a criminal Bush is. The thing is, libs don't really care about the experiences of Iraqis under the pure brutality of the US invasion, they just want a few token feel good stories to "halalify" their belief in US institutions. For leftists, please don't romanticise the people of the third world and their collective experiences. Even if the anti-imperialist positions that many hold are cool and should be applauded, the majority, just like in the US, hold some extremely reactionary values and are downright abusive towards most of our ideas about social order as "western leftists". LGBT rights, women's rights, sexual liberation won't happen anytime soon even if the US hegemony is defeated, chances are that things will get even more reactionary.

      What do you believe would be the most useful way to have solidarity with Iraqis within and outside Iraq?

      Delegitimize western media, as they were and still are supporters of imperial projects. Donate money to real local women's rights and LGBT orgs, as those two groups suffer the most in today's jungle of a country. Do everything you can to educate people about the criminality of Bush and the rest of his criminal gangs, don't let the media rehabilitate them even more. Try to understand the build-up to the Iraq War, as the same project is currently attacking Iran, Bolivia and Venezuela. I don't know what else people can do honestly