I have some Iraqi and other contacts who might be helpful, and hopefully I will be able to explore the possibilities while in Syria, though that is not the main purpose of the trip. I plan to be there for about a month, which hopefully will allow time to at least initiate some useful relationships.

I see you point about the “former collaborators” , perhaps it was a bad suggestion.

I still would like to specifically help a a family or families that I would know who they were and they could know me if they wanted too, so I am open to anything.

Bull Pucky!

Oh well, it is what it is, and no one will die or be maimed or starve to death because of it. It is, in perspective, not the end of the world, no matter how badly the COO and other management takes it.

If you are inclined to help out the former collaborators, I have no problem with that – it is up to you. My interest is in helping those who have been forced from their homes, and most of all those whose homes are no longer standing thanks to the United States military. They have lost everything.

I am looking forward to working with you on some kind of project.

Hope you have a better rest of the week.

The Iraqis who worked with and on behalf of the occupation are not the people I am interested in helping. It is not that I have anything against them personally. Some of them simply got caught up in a situation for various reasons. Some no doubt sincerely thought they were doing the right thing, at least in the beginning. For some, robbed of their means of livelihood by the invasion and occupation, it was the only way to support their families. And others had less forgivable motives. But it is the U.S. and not I who owe these people, and there are already movements and organizations working on their behalf. And there are millions and millions of Iraqis who have not derived any benefit from the U.S. aggression and have no one to help them.

Second, I am not interested in contributing to efforts to resettle displaced Iraqis, and particularly not in the United States. I have a number of reasons for that, both rational and non-rational. Displaced persons and refugees have a right to return to their country, and Iraq will need its most valuable asset, its people. Eventual repatriation, not resettlement, should be the first priority wherever it is possible.

What I would really most like to see is an effort to help the estimated million or so Iraqis who are displaced and homeless because the American military destroyed their homes or rendered them uninhabitable. Those are the people to whom the United States owes the most. I am not sure how one would go about locating that specific group of people, but it should not be impossible.

Now, to address something else:

My comment to Brenda was not made out of some emotional outburst. Most of my comments here are not, in fact, though some have been.

The problem with written communication is that it is not accompanied by facial expression, body language, and vocal tone, so it can be very easy to misinterpret. Words alone simply do not convey the full story. The exact same words can mean one thing when accompanied by a smile or a chuckle and quite another when delivered with a scowl and a raised voice. Irony comes across very poorly in this medium.

How we interpret a written message does not only depend on how it is written. It also has a lot to do with our mental and emotional state at the time, including the expectation with which we approach reading it. And, of course, part of that expectation is the mental image we have developed of the writer.

When we write something we know what our intention is, and we are aware of our mental state. There reader is not necessarily aware. So, after I saw Brenda’s extremely angry reaction – one might even call it a diatribe } – I tried to step out of my own understanding of my intention, and look at it from a different perspective, and then I could understand how it could be taken in a negative way.

I was not suggesting that Brenda or anyone here has any ill feeling about any group of people, including Pakistanis, Muslims, Iraqis or anyone else, and you will find nothing in my words that says that. What I was suggesting was that not Brenda, not you, probably not anyone else here has any basis on which to make conclusions about Pakistanis’ way of life, or their ability or willingness to have democracy. It is an unconscious and baseless prejudice that leads to that kind of thinking, all humans are prone to it, and all humans must try to recognize it in themselves and overcome it.

In the case of Pakistan the evidence in front of us seems to indicate, by the way, that they have a strong desire and will to live in a democratic state. That is certainly the case with my “adopted” family (more accurately, the family that adopted me), and all the people there I have met and gotten to know and grown to love. So, let’s all be careful not to draw conclusions about the abilities of other groups of people to do things based on unfounded beliefs about a “way of life” that we really don’t know anything about.

Yes, I AM working very hard right now – it is a case of “your lack of planning is, in fact, my emergency” } – and I WAS very tired last night. However, when I wrote what I wrote to Brenda it was not out of exhaustion, or emotion. There was nothing “white hot” about it. My intention was to ask Brenda and others to think about and question the assumptions contained in the point of view she expressed.

The idea that Pakistanis (or Arabs, or Muslims, or…fill in the blank) are incapable of democracy or anything else, for that matter), and that they have some exotic, impenetrable “way of life” that “we westerners” cannot comprehend is a very damaging, and in my view dangerous thing, and it needs to be challenged.

I myself am bicultural, and I move very comfortably between the two cultures. In addition, I have an “adopted” family in Pakistan, I have lived in their home, and I know for a fact that in the ways that matter they are not all that different from you or Brenda or me or any other human being. Sure, they dress differently, some of their traditions are different – even Arabs could take lessons from them in hospitality. And those in this country who constantly bleat about and try to force artificial concepts of “family values” would learn what true family values are from my Pakistani family and their friends.

And moving to the present situation in Pakistan, it is not the Pakistanis’ “way of life” that is getting in the way of democracy there, it is their leader’s – a dictator who took power in a military coup – refusal to release one iota of his hold on power. Look at the means he was willing to use.

And the people of Pakistan certainly do not seem to accept these undemocratic actions, do they?

Attitudes and views that create distance between human beings, and that place one group of humans above another, and as long as they are maintained, especially by good people with good hearts and good minds, there will always be troubles. These divisive views exist on both sides, and they have to be removed.

For many years I have believed that all American citizens should be required to live one year in a non-western country, not as part of an American community there, but as part of the local community there. That would serve as an education both for the American “guest”, and for the host community. You learn a lot about human beings and what we all have in common that way.

Over, and over, and over again…to no avail.

Reason is not his/her purpose.

I echo what hoosier hoops said.

Perhaps I was a little strong and sarcastic in my original post.

Please accept my apologies and yes I still want to do something to help some Iraqi refugees.

Here is a link that Susan helped me find.

http://www.thelistproject.org/

It is called

Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies

It is an organization started by a man named Kirk Johnson who worked for the USAID Bagdad and Fullajah. After he came back to the US he became concerned that Iraqi’s who had worked for USAID were receiving death threats so he started a list to try to keep track of these people and to figure out a way to help them.

Are this people you would feel comfortable helping? (I am not being sarcastic)

Anyway check it out and let me know what you think.

I know you are busy and as hoops said above sometimes emotions concerning Iraq especially for you become very painful and personal.

Again, Shirin we on NQ are not your enemy. We can understand how conflicted at times you can feel between living here as a citizen and then dealing with this countries policies towards your homeland and other countries.

NONE of like this situation but please believe me when I say, even though most of us have probably not been to Iraq, or Pakistan, or any other ME countries, it in no way lessens our concern for plight of the people who lives have been torn asunder by the evil and vicious people who run this country.

Even though we all have our differences and stresses in our own lives, the reason I come to NQ is because it is a community of mostly true compassionate human beings who I enjoy relating to and learning from including you.

So lets work on helping some of the people we have so wronged, ok?

Anyone else have any ideas on how to help the displaced iraqi people no matter where they are?

I am not trying to dictate to anyone on this site what they should do. I just thought it might be helpful to coordinate through NQ any help any of us might be able to do.

Let me here from any of you either here of email me directly at

bill564@cox.net.

The other despots are our allies.