From an Iraqi mother - 35, with 3 children. Her blog Oct 1, 2007.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

More evidence of how well the surge is "working".

I've been following her 15 year old daughter's blog for some time. I have her permission (the daughter's) to post her entries here. I've broken the entry below into paragraphs for ease of reading. No other changes have been made.

http://youngmammy.blogspot.com/

Monday, October 01, 2007
lucky to stay alive

For the forth time a near loud explosion damaged our house so badly ,and frightened my kids . Allah saved us but not all our neighbors were as lucky as we were, the injured had to walk to the hospital as no ambulance could come to our neighborhood because we were surrendered, I sadly saw my young female neighbor walking with her 3 years old nephew with bloody body to reach the hospital which is about 2 km away from our neighborhood. of course our windows were broken and the doors too ,the house was full of dust, smoke , shrapnels and brokered glass.

while we started to check our losses a second very deafening explosion startled us which caused very bad damages and scared us specially my children ,Merriam kept screaming and lost the ability to walk, Sunshine carried her , yoyo was screaming and crying ,he was asleep when the explosion awaked him…..

We were all fasting ,hungry ,and thirsty .it was 3 pm when we started to sweep the dust and the glass ,with pain, hunger, anger and thirst we almost finished the most important steps of the cleaning ,as the sun set we supposed to have our fotoor( meal ),we didn't cook any thing, as we were busy , so we prepared some simple dish of eggs and meet, 15 minutes before fotoor I fainted ,I was shaky while I was cleaning ,then suddenly I fell at the ground, I must had hypoglycemia…….
Mama

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Great. The U.S.'s own Blitz. They'll hate us forever. nt

[porphyrian]

2. Oh yeah, it's Ramadan, or something like that, isn't it?

Nothing like a little religious holiday bombing to win the hearts and minds of the civilians...

[AuntPatsy]

3. Sometimes you wonder why such threads drop so fast.

[Desertrose]

4. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Then again...what can we say that would make things any better over there...well there is bring the troops home NOW.

:cry:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. No celebrities, no sex, no candidates....

I've been posting these for over a year. With the same result.

Oddly enough, this woman's daughter "Sunshine" has recently been interviewed by BBC because of her blog. http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/ Which I find, not dissimilar to "The Diary of Anne Frank" in it's content as a diary of a rather ordinary girl living through horrendous times.

I have no explanation for the lack of interest other than (I hope) that there is little to say from our safe perspective.

[AuntPatsy]

6. An important reason to not give up on pushing for troop withdrawal and NOT

letting up....

[tnlefty]

7. Sometimes it's just so depressing, and I have nothing to add.

This has disgusted me since before the invasion, and it's just heartbreaking though not ignored.

[AuntPatsy]

8. You know, I just reread your post and I thought to myself this young girl

and those that live her life are profoundly more admirable than any politician or celebrity, what those people and so many like her have to live through, could any of us do it without going mad?

They deserve our time, Im humbled by this young girl.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Go to her site and read back through her entries.

I have, as has my wife, and her determination to just live her life and her refusal to give in to despair is an example to me, a 63 year old man, to be humbled and inspired by her courage, love of life, and refusal to be a victim.

[AuntPatsy]

10. I will, I will bookmark it, thank you for helping to get this young woman's story told.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. She enjoys receiving email if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for reading the OP.

[AuntPatsy]

18. I will thank you, I read some, plan to go back and read it all, bookmarked.

[Pastiche423]

19. Does she know how many Americans are against the genocide

of her people? Not that that would help her much, except to know that many of us are trying to stop the war.

About three years ago, my town was a part of a "We're sorry" national action. Our group stood in front of our library w/a sign written in Arabic. A local resturant owner wrote it for us.

The photos were sent to a website that published them on the net and in Arabic newspapers.

Sadly, I can no longer find the website, nor have heard of a follow up. It is frustrating and heartbreaking to know what our government is doing to them and not being able to do anything about it.

K&R

[jgraz]

14. It's impossible to scream and rend your garments with a smiley

Seriously, I just think most people just don't know what to say at this point. Me included.

[Hoof Hearted]

11. All I can do is K&R, and get up tomorrow and try again.

Some days, all this pain is really hard.

[AuntPatsy]

12. I wanted to share this small part of this woman's story, how true and how sad.

The media made us terrorists that we may kill each other ,that our castes separates us ,and that Iraqis kill mercilessly, they turned us from being innocent victims into murderers and from people have ancient civilizations to illiterates…………..

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. I've often said I can't imagine trying to have a life under the conditions now in Iraq

These people don't deserve what's been forced upon them, and they're helpless to effect change.

For every one Iraqi person they find to put on television willing to say how much better their lives are now, post U.S. invasion. There are literally thousands more who are mourning the loss of loved ones and a life they knew before the U.S. invasion.

[AuntPatsy]

17. Reality is not very pretty, we have a duty to those whose lives we have

destroyed.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

25. And continue to destroy

If we were on a road to improving things for them it would be different. But the sad reality is that they're the least of the concern for those in power.

[me b zola]

16. ...

[Alameda]

20. Thank you for posting this

I do not know what to say....their bravery is truly an inspiration.

[scarletwoman]

21. Thank you for posting this. The magnitude of the crime we have perpetrated against the Iraqi people

is beyond my ability to encompass in words.

If we do nothing else, at the very least we must bear unblinking witness to the crimes committed in our name, and make sure that the record of these crimes is preserved and disseminated.

sw

[orleans]

22. k&r. i've been reading through these blogs--my heart is heavy. n/t

[scarletwoman]

23. kicking this up....

[ryanus]

24. ain't freedom grand? sigh, I hate war