PHOTOS OF MARCH 19TH PROTESTS IN BAGHDAD

Thanks for these amazing shots, really brilliant. A world we never know, except here, on indymedia.

Peaceful demonstrations today and armed resistance yesterday and tomorrow.

Iraq is Viet Nam all over again. How many more people will Bush ... and Kerry kill?

"That's exactly right!! Demonstrations in Arab countries are all state sponsored. If they're not, the demonstrators are mowed down like wheat...
The people of Iraq are FINALLY free to demonstrate! Thanks to coalition forces!"

Great. Now that iraqis are "free" to demostrate, let's see what they are demonstrating about: Against the United States. So in the state sponsored Saddam protests they rallied against the US, and now that Saddam is gone, they are still doing it.

This should unmask the lie that Iraqis only protested against the US because they "had" to. No there is genuine hatred and disgust over what the US hs done to the population over the past 13 years.

This argument wuoted above ignores the content of the protest, and is really just an argument to dismiss the claims they are making. Funny how arguing for "freedom" becomes a method to ignore human rights abuses, slaughter of civilians, and forget about more than a decade of sanctions that denied people their basic needs on purpose. Freedom really is slavery then...

Thank you for taking these photos and posting them so we can see with our own eyes that we are being lied to by the corporate media.

its so horrible to see that one man can do so much to the world and kill so many, but it's great to see that people can unite against him and his war.

Thank you for this coverage - it shows the fact that, in truth, the peace movement is standing in solidarity with the Iraqi people. Despite the presence of Iraqi's at many of the events around the world on Saturday, we were often charged by pro-war individuals as speaking against what the Iraqi's actually want.

The French revolution was a National revolution in essence, and almost every revolutionary movement ever since has been so. The then-invented language of (inter)national politics still obscures our political and social imagination. In my opinion we should abolish all (inter)national(ist) sentiment, and try to shape new ideas, a new language, for a global revolution. After all, shouldn't we be liberating the human being (or life itself) rather than "nations" or "peoples"? No borders, no nations!

big props and love to andrew for his excellent work.

Exactly as the poster who said "we'd never see this in the corporate media". How odd yeah? They're there, with their money and their cameras, but no, we can't be shown the Iraqi resistance, the cognitive dissonance with what our rulers tell us would make our heads explode.

Thank you Andrew, thank you indymedia.

Words from inside Iraq on the anniv. of the invasion
From a blog diary by a young Iraqi woman in Baghdad

<http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com>

Saturday, March 20, 2004
 
The War on Terror...

I'm feeling irritable and angry today. It's exactly a year since the war
on Iraq began and it seems to be weighing heavily on everyone.

Last year, on this day, the war started during the early hours of the
morning. I wasn't asleep - I hadn't slept since Bush's ultimatum a couple
of days before. It wasn't because I was scared but because I didn't want
to be asleep when the bombs started falling. The tears started falling
with the first few thuds. I'm not very prone to tears, but that moment, a
year ago today, I felt such sorrow at the sound of those bombs. It was a
familiar feeling because it wasn't, after all, the first time America was
bombing us. It didn't seem fair that it was such a familiar feeling.

I felt horrible that Baghdad was being reduced to rubble. With every
explosion, I knew that some vital part of it was going up in flames. It
was terrible and I don't think I'd wish it on my worst enemy. That was the
beginning of the 'liberation' - a liberation from sovereignty, a certain
sort of peace, a certain measure of dignity. We've been liberated from our
jobs, and our streets and the sanctity of our homes - some of us have even
been liberated from the members of our family and friends.

A year later and our electricity is intermittent, at best, there
constantly seems to be a fuel shortage and the streets aren't safe. When
we walk down those streets, on rare occasions, the faces are haggard and
creased with concern - concern over family members under detention, homes
raided by Americans, hungry mouths to feed, and family members to keep
safe from abduction, rape and death.

And where are we now, a year from the war? Sure- we own satellite dishes
and the more prosperous own mobile phones - but where are we *really*?

Where are the majority?

We're trying to fight against the extremism that seems to be upon us like
a black wave; we're wondering, on an hourly basis, how long it will take
for some semblance of normality to creep back into our lives; we're hoping
and praying against civil war.

We're watching with disbelief as American troops roam the streets of our
towns and cities and break violently into our homes... we're watching with
anger as the completely useless Puppet Council sits giving out fat
contracts to foreigners and getting richer by the day- the same people who
cared so little for their country, that they begged Bush and his cronies
to wage a war that cost thousands of lives and is certain to cost
thousands more.

We're watching sardonically as an Iranian cleric in the south turns a once
secular country into America's worst nightmare- a carbon copy of Iran.

We're watching as the lies unravel slowly in front of the world- the WMD
farce and the Al-Qaeda mockery.

And where are we now? Well, our governmental facilities have been burned
to the ground by a combination of 'liberators' and 'Free Iraqi Fighters';
50% of the working population is jobless and hungry; summer is looming
close and our electrical situation is a joke; the streets are dirty and
overflowing with sewage; our jails are fuller than ever with thousands of
innocent people; we've seen more explosions, tanks, fighter planes and
troops in the last year than almost a decade of war with Iran brought; our
homes are being raided and our cars are stopped in the streets for
inspections- journalists are being killed 'accidentally' and the seeds of
a civil war are being sown by those who find it most useful; the
hospitals overflow with patients but are short on just about everything
else- medical supplies, medicine and doctors; and all the while, the oil
is flowing.

But we've learned a lot. We've learned that terrorism isn't actually the
act of creating terror. It isn't the act of killing innocent people and
frightening others™ no, you see, that's called a 'liberation'. It doesn't
matter what you burn or who you kill- if you wear khaki, ride a tank or
Apache or fighter plane and drop missiles and bombs, then you're not a
terrorist- you're a liberator.

The war on terror is a joke- Madrid was proof of that last week- Iraq is
proof of that everyday.

I hope someone feels safer, because we certainly don't.

http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2004-March/005526.html

very strong and very beautiful.
thank you so much for bringing us these pictures, they're amazing, they tell us A LOT...

It is a disgusting shame to know how the US President, talks about peace, freedom, etc. for Iraq. He claims to be a Christian and he has been aired praying on TV. Does he not know two wrongs only make things worse. If he would at least understand and apply some of the basics of Jesus’ message in Iraq, we would now have friends there.
Maybe he has a bad weakness for oil and imperialism. Or maybe he’s just another actor. May God forgive him for all the evil he has imposed on all the innocent people on both sides. And that his conscience give him the courage to step back

How is it that any one could wish that the former regime where still in power? How could anyone deny that with out extreme intervention the people of Iraq would still suffer without some of the basic rights they now have. Is there problems with the interim goverment, and public service infrastructure? Yes of course. A war has just ripped through the country and the Interim Goverment is still brand new. What other foreign power has put so much effort in wartime strategy to preserve public service infrastructure. What other foreign power has commited its son's and daughters lives, billions of dollars in taxpayer money to remove a dictator and then give the country right back to the people? How could the Iraqi's have stood up to such a powerful regime on their own where the majority of the upper class was paid by the old regime? For those of you who protest Bush and the United States involvement under the guise of being for the Iraqi people you should ask yourself "What have I done to help make Iraq better? What sacrifices have I made?" A great opportunity has been given to the Iraqi people I hope they use it wisely. Many other countries in the UN are not willing to sacrifice for the people of Iraq but are willing to make money in the rebuilding of Iraq. To many complain about things being done and not enough offer suggestions or assistance...such attitudes will be the demise of American morals.

without war we lose our natural resources, but we are being eaten alive by an enemy from within

what American Morals????