West Asia

From the beginning, the war in Iraq was meant to be a swift and relatively inexpensive operation. The Pentagon, particularly Donald Rumsfeld, envisioned a targeted bombing campaign followed by a trim, invading ground force, which in combination would "shock and awe" Iraq into surrender. The White House estimated the cost of the war would range from $50 billion to $200 billion. The expectations of both Rumsfeld and the White House have turned out to be highly miscalculated.

A few weeks ago I learned that a journalist who was one of my colleagues was kidnapped, then, five days later, released unharmed with his driver in Baghdad. I was shocked, then relieved. I somehow managed to find some humor in the not-so-humorous event. Prior to his Iraq trip, my colleague, a young British reporter, had asked me if he "could use my name" as a reference should he be kidnapped. Despite the fact that I was unsure how my name - little known in Arabic press that dominated Iraq - would be of any help, I agreed. 

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet." - Iranian Born Poet, Rumi

Nine centuries after Rumi penned these words, young Iranians post blogs to express themselves in a nation where drinking liquor and wearing lipstick warrants public flogging. The modern day "secret sky" is the world wide web, the veils have not fallen and though Rumi was speaking of love, it is, in today's Iran, interchangeable with freedom.

Most people in the United States would like to have seen the 140,000-plus U.S. troops who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to be finally withdrawn from Iraq by Christmas 2005. Yet neither Bush Administration officials nor Democratic Party establishment politicians appeared willing to bring U.S. troops in Iraq back to the U.S. any time soon. They still apparently do not want to admit that the demand by U.S. anti-war movement demonstrators that no U.S. troops be sent to Iraq was a wiser foreign policy option to implement than their bipartisan foreign policy of "authorizing the use of United States Armed Force against Iraq."

Ten schools in Amman were closed to facilitate the election process. Unlike the constitution referendum, Iraqis outside Iraq were permitted to participate in the process, just as they did in the January elections. 320,000 Iraqis participated in the election abroad in the recent election.