Dispatches from Baghdad

The unbearable gas crisis has worsened yet further. Lines at stations are up to 8 miles long in places, causing people to wait hours, sometimes days, for fuel.

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Generators are now running out of fuel-so people have no electricity…as the power grid for most of Baghdad produces in most places 6 hours of electricity per day. Much of Baghdad has 2 hours per day.

The gas crisis has increased transportation costs, so the cost of food is skyrocketing, along with cooking fuels like kerosene and propane.

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“I hate this fucking place,” says Salam as he enters my room tonight. He is pissed because he was instructed to be searched by Iraqi Police by soldiers who are stationed nearby. One of the IP’s told him, “The soldiers are stupid mother fuckers, so just let us search you. We know you come here all the time, even though they can’t remember. We have to do our job.”

It didn’t help his disposition any yesterday when he was at an internet café and a tank could not make it past his car as it was parked on a narrow street. An Iraqi policeman found Salam in the internet café nearby and told him, “The soldiers told you to move your car or they will run it over. You’d better do it, because I’ve seen them run over a car there before.”

Dahr Jamail post

Electricity has been particularly bad. Our telephone has been cut off for the last week which has made communication (and blogging) particularly difficult. The phone difficulties are quite common all over Baghdad. It usually happens in an area after a fresh bombing.

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The situation is really bad in Baghdad. Many areas have turned into mini-warzones. A'miriyah, A'adhamiyah, Ghazaliyah and Haifa to name a few. The rest of us just get our usual dose of daily explosions and gun fire.

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Elections are a mystery. No one knows if they'll actually take place and it feels like many people don't want to have anything to do with them. They aren't going to be legitimate any way. The only political parties participating in them are the same ones who made up the Governing Council several months ago- Allawi's group, Chalabi's group, SCIRI, Da'awa and some others. Allawi, in spite of all his posturing and posing, has turned himself into a hateful figure after what happened in Falloojeh. As long as he is in a position of power, America will be occupying Iraq. People realize that now. He's Bush's boy.

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I can't get the video Al-Jazeera played out of my head:

The mosque strewn with bodies of Iraqis- not still with prayer or meditation, but prostrate with death- Some seemingly bloated… an old man with a younger one leaning upon him… legs, feet, hands, blood everywhere… The dusty sun filtering in through the windows… the stillness of the horrid place. Then the stillness is broken- in walk some marines, guns pointed at the bodies... the mosque resonates with harsh American voices arguing over a body- was he dead, was he alive? I watched, tense, wondering what they would do- I expected the usual Marines treatment- that a heavy, booted foot would kick the man perhaps to see if he groaned. But it didn't work that way- the crack of gunfire suddenly explodes in the mosque as the Marine fires at the seemingly dead man and then come the words, "He's dead now."

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It's typical American technique- every single atrocity is lost and covered up by blaming a specific person and getting it over with. What people don't understand is that the whole military is infested with these psychopaths. In this last year we've seen murderers, torturers and xenophobes running around in tanks and guns. I don't care what does it: I don't care if it's the tension, the fear, the 'enemy'… it's murder. We are occupied by murderers. We're under the same pressure, as Iraqis, except that we weren't trained for this situation, and yet we're all expected to be benevolent and understanding and, above all, grateful. I'm feeling sick, depressed and frightened. I don't know what to say anymore… they aren't humans and they don't deserve any compassion.

So why is the world so obsessed with beheadings? How is this so very different? The difference is that the people who are doing the beheadings are extremists… the people slaughtering Iraqis- torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners- are "American Heroes". Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourselves today.

Riberbend posts (one two)

Graphic at Myerku