The Iraqi Book of the Dead

The Iraqi Book of the Dead

by Jane Stillwater


My friend Betsy just sent me an e-mail. "The news last night said that Iraqis are starting to turn against extremists and starting to fight Al-Qaeda...is this wishful thinking or are people really talking about this in Baghdad?" Are they talking about it? Yes and no. Yes, they are talking about it, but, no, it is not the major topic of conversation.

What everyone here in Baghdad is really talking about is DEATH. Death is everywhere here. It permeates the very air we breathe. It seeps into our conversations and into our dreams -- which explains why, since I have arrived in this country, I almost never sleep.

A CBS camera crew just wandered into the press room. "Have you ever been to an Iraqi morgue?" I asked one of the team.

"No, I have never been to a morgue. Morgues here are very dangerous places."

I was surprised. Why would a morgue be so dangerous? "Because the Shia go there to pick off the Sunnis who go there to claim dead relatives and the Sunnis go there to pick off the Shia who have also gone there to claim their dead." So. Death, if you are still looking around for thy sting, I guess your best bet of finding it would be in an Iraqi morgue.

Whenever American soldiers say goodbye to each other over here, they always say, "Take care." For Americans in Iraq, Death rides in every vehicle, haunts every road, lives in every hooch. It's life on the edge. One never knows.

When I first came to Iraq, I thought I was here to write stories. But now I think that I'm just here to be a witness -- a witness to the power of death. Make no mistake, boys and girls. The Grim Reaper is the real governor of Iraq no matter who sits in parliament or how fortified the Green Zone is. And, knowing that, my next question should be, "Will I die here too?" No, not me. I am immortal! I can't even imagine a world without me. It's hard for any one to conceive of their own death.

But I know what the next question I should ask after that one should be. "How can the supposedly-idealistic United Nations, the supposedly-democratic United States, the supposedly-civilized European Union or even Russia or China allow a country to exist with Death as its commander-in-chief?" They overthrew Saddam here. They should overthrow Death too. But they won't. Instead, Death has been given permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Death is now a member of the G-8.

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http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jane_sti_071014_the_iraqi_book_of_th.htm

although they seem to be riding off into corners, if not the sunset.