All I Want Is Ten Years of Peace

I vaguely remember seeing on the news when the two towers were blown up. The event that the U.S. used as an excuse to come and attack Iraq. Then in 2003, they started the invasion because they claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. At the time, I was merely an eight-year-old child. I remember the fear I had in my heart. Things were uncertain, and war is a big, scary thing. For me, this was a new thing. But for my family this wasn’t new, as they had lived through other wars.

This was the first scary thing that I remember. Luckily, where I live was away from the bombings, and I wasn’t directly affected by the war. I was safe. My family was safe. But the fear lived within us. But that doesn’t mean things were 100% safe. Different terrorist groups would bomb different places. People were being kidnapped. Long story short, they spread fear throughout the whole country. We didn’t feel safe even in our homes.

I still remember in the early days of the war, on the news, I saw a dead bird on the street due to either bombing or clashes. This dead bird has stuck with me 23 years later. Just a bird that didn’t know what was happening and became a victim of people’s violence. And whenever I hear about any war or any conflict, besides thinking about the humans, I also think about the animals.

We spent some years like this; being scared and thinking maybe we could be next, or our loved ones. Coexisting with different terrorist groups. Luckily, things started to get better slowly, both economically and in terms of security. However, good things don’t last long in our neck of the woods. Surprisingly (not), things got bad again LOL (not really funny). I won’t get into details about the upcoming events nor talk about them politically. So after some good times, ISIS appeared. At first it affected our economy badly. Then they made their way to Iraqi soil and took over a big Iraqi city. Needless to say, their presence was not delightful and only brought death to our brave Kurdish men in our defense. A lot of women lost their husbands, a lot of children lost their fathers, and so many parents’ hearts broke for the deaths of their sons.

Meanwhile, while we were scared for our lives because we didn’t know when ISIS would attack and take over other cities, the Iraqi Kurds voted for their freedom. There was a referendum in September 2017 to decide for our fate as the Kurds, and boy were we excited about having a Kurdish country rather than just a region. But shortly after, things got bad. Again. Are we surprised? Not really. That wasn’t our first rodeo.

I still remember the days vividly, and to this day it breaks my heart how things turned out. The first morning when I woke up, our TV was already on the news. It was showing Kurdish men trying to defend a bridge in Kirkuk. By the time I got home, Mom told me they’d been killed. Whenever I slept, I’d wake up to worse news. At some point, I didn’t want to sleep anymore. It was too much.

This too passed, and in between these events we had other uncertainties. Unfortunately, it’s been like this long before I was born. The other day, I was telling my friend, “All I want is for us to have ten years of peace.” What is even worse is that what I explained from my personal experiences is nothing compared to other places. There are people who have had it a hundred times worse than me. But it is what it is. The advantages of living in the Middle East, I guess.

And then, my friends, we’d get drone visits from Iran from time to time over the past years. What a peaceful life we’re leading. And now, the recent events. The bombing between Iran, the U.S., and Israel and affecting the countries in between. Because why the heck not?!

Just for their own benefits, they put people through all this shittery. Nothing happens to the so-called world leaders. The people who struggle and lose the most are the innocent ones. The ones that governments call casualties or collateral damage. Well, the casualty was a person. A person with dreams, with family, with children, with books to read, with someone they love and can’t be with now, with a career, with hopes, with a life, with a story. But guess what? You buried all of that. Thousands of casualties. But it’s okay, right? Because they were nobody to you, just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, here is what I have to say to people who support this shit: FUCK YOU!

And for the people who don’t have a clue or don’t know much, first of all, be grateful for your peaceful life, and second, inform yourselves about these issues.