Im not Retired

Thank everyone for their kind words, wishes, and help. It is appreciated by all. But i must clarify, I am not stopping the blog. I have come to realize just how much we Iraqi bloggers mean to the outside world because we provide voices for our countrymen and therefore we help our future, so my last message was not an indication that I am ending the blog, no, I just will have less time.

There is not a lot of new news out of Iraq, the most notable over the last day was that there was a large weapons dump found in Mosul. They are not sure what is in here yet, or the nature of the weapons. I dont think it will be anything really important, probably jsut some terrorists' hiding their weapons.

The focus of the world seems to have shifted from IRaq to Lebanon. Things are not peaceful here, and horrendous terrorist attacks continue, although thankfully we havn't had one as big as the one that killed my cousin. In Lebanon the issue of Syrian occupation has come to the forefront since the Prime Minister Harriri was killed. I have not heard conclusively who did it, people on satellite tv speculate that it was Syria, but in Iraq people are divided as usual, everyone is being blamed from the Syrians to Israel to the KGB to God knows who, but you must understand this is the way things normally are here.

Living in Saddam's society, and a part of the world that generally has bad and controlling governments, we have become acclimated to doubting what we hear and knowing that there is always more to what is happening than what is visible to us, especially when we get it through tv or other mediums.

But thats not the important topic. Lebanese are having different demonstrations for and against Syria. What is really going on? I dont know. Some speculate that yesterday's pro-Syria was a sham, others say the same about the anti-Syrian demostrations. Whatever is happening, I hope that the true will of the people will come to dominate.

But I think we must all remember things are complex there. My barber is from Lebanon and what he told me was this: Most Lebanese want Syrians out, with Syria in Lebanon there is always this ghost hanging over the country, I think this happens anytime that a country is occupied by a foreign army. So naturally, the Lebanese want the Syrians to leave, for example he told me, after Hafez Assad died, a man went around yelling "Assad is dead, and we are happy!" and he was promptly arrested.
On the other side of the coin, he said that the Lebanese were fearful of Israel. Israel had afterall invaded Lebanon, and was involved in the civil war due to it's alliance with Christian groups. So, in a strange way, the Syrian presence is a buffer to this, and some lebanese fear that the removal of Syria will give Israel a freer hand in Lebanon.

What is the real case though? I dont know, these are just some ideas that were shared with me by a Lebanese man, let us all pray that the will of the people is paramount in the future there. Lebanon is a beautiful place with beautiful people, especially women :-), so it is a shame for it to be in such a bad position.