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âGodâs Will is Stronger Than US Weaponryâ
Don't bet on it...There are over 40,000 Iraqi exiles already in Jordan, but since the start of the war it has become obvious that predictions of thousands more arriving as refugees were Iraqi gross miscalculations. Meaning maybe they want to stay and be liberated? What in fact appears to be happening is the opposite. Huge numbers of the Iraqi exiles who initially left Iraq because of political reasons have decided to return to participate and fight side by side with their Iraqi brothers. According to the Iraqi Embassy in Amman, 5,700 Iraqis have left Jordan to go and fight what they believe is an invasion and potential occupation of their home country.âWe have catered to these 5,700 Iraqis to get their documents in order,â said Jawad Al-Ali, the Iraqi Embassyâs press attache, in an interview with Arab News. âSome have lost their passports or their papers have simply expired,â Al-Ali added. âOn the first day of the war, we processed the papers of 2,500 Iraqis, and they are still coming.â ...or maybe they want a free ride home so they can be liberated too? Or maybe they have a death wish? Large groups are taking buses from midtown Amman for $17 per person in order to make their way back to Baghdad. If it was me, there'd be a lot of blown up buses on the Amman-Baghdad highway. But what of the past? âIâve lived in Jordan for the last 10 years,â Azziz Alzumaan, 42, who owns a small kabab shop in downtown Amman, told Arab News. âI left for political reasons and to find a peaceful life, but those things are not important anymore. Iâm going home to be with my family and to fight the invading aggressors, and God willing we will win or die trying,â he added. Azziz left on the morning bus to Baghdad. A 12-hour ride to his past, present and future. Well... you won't win. Say hello to Allah for me. Also, the first free bus to Baghdad left here yesterday, courtesy of one of Saddam Husseinâs sons, with 50 Iraqi men on board. I think that makes "The Uday Express" a legit target... âIt was too expensive for me to leave before, but now the trip is free and Iâm going back to fight for my country,â said Samir, a 35-year-old construction worker. He added that he was going back to Basra, the main southern Iraqi city partially controlled by the US/UK forces where pockets of Iraqi resistance still remain. Basra? Better hustle it up, Samir. Also yesterday, dozens of âvolunteersâ left Beirut to take up arms in Iraq, proclaiming they were ready to embrace death to expel US and British forces from Arab land, witnesses said. The mostly Lebanese young men, enraged by gruesome television images showing Iraqi civilian casualties of the 12-day-old war, left by land via Syria to join the fight. Witnesses saw 36 volunteers cross the Lebanese border into Syria in a bus. They said they were on their way to Iraq. Destination: Death. All aboard. And some 15 young Algerians gathered yesterday outside the Iraq Embassy in Algiers, proclaiming themselves ready to die as martyrs to defend the âhonor and dignity of Arabs and Muslimsâ as the âenemies of humanityâ wage war on Iraq. âI donât know the first thing about using weapons, but I learn quickly,â said Ali, who, judging by his peach-fuzz beard, couldnât be a day over 20. Good. They'll make you a general. Next to him, a self-assured Samir piped up: âI know how to use a Kalashnikov and an RPG (rocket launcher). I did my military service. The Kalash is a great weapon.â It is especially easy to throw away... Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-01 |
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