Salam Pax

With Gulf War II running into it's second day, I thought it appropriate to link to the web site of Salam Pax. This is the site of an Iraqi citizen living in Baghdad. Reading his posts reminds me of the feelings I had when I was serving my country in the Army.

This needs to be remembered, as I have said in other posts and in my responses to comments of others, we are not at war with the people of Iraq. War and the use of the military is a tool of governments and is usually the tool of last resort. The use of combat is only employed when all other forms of diplomacy have failed.

Saddam and Iraq knew that force was coming. It has been promised for 12 years. For 12 years the Iraqi government has had the choice to disarm and avoid combat, or not.

Salam's site is interesting to me because it is easy to get caught up in the affairs of government and forget the citizens of the other country. The people of the other country have the same hopes and fears that we do, they are trying to do their best and raise their families, do their jobs well, and live a clean and decent life. It is the affairs of governments that land them in harms way being brought by a country that would never touch their lives negatively if thier own government had honored it's commitments to the international community of the UN.

If you have time, go over to Salam's blog, http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ and read about his daily life in Iraq.

I fear he will lose contact as the bombing intensifies, but I for one will be checking his site 2 or 3 times a day. Good luck Salam and I hope you make it through. If it was up to me, I would be more than happy to have you and your family over for a while until the current situation in your country stabilizes...

Good luck and may God be with you...