How the war is affecting Iraqi citizens -- an illustrated discussion

Lorna Tychostup, photographer and Senior Editor for Chronogram Magazine, spoke at our June meeting to update us on life and the struggle for survival in Iraq. A slide show illustrated her discussion and the group later viewed the impressive collection of photographs she took during her fact-gathering trips.

The best way to describe Iraq is as a place where many different truths are happening at once. To get inside the Iraqi mind, Tychostup says, one has to understand their current situation in addition to what they endured under Saddam Hussein. What you see on the news, she says, is not necessarily the truth or the whole truth. Add to this the U.S. Involvement, its underlying motivations, the 2000 and upcoming U.S. elections, and the shades of gray can leave a visitor to Iraq with conflicting feelings.

Lorna has traveled to Iraq twice (once with the organization "Voices in the Wilderness") and is planning another trip in July. She flies to Amman, Jordan, stops at a hotel, and then travels in an SUV at about 100 miles an hour across the desert on a two-lane superhighway. About twelve hours later, she arrives in Baghdad. Her hotel is four blocks from the city square where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled during the invasion. She describes Baghdad as being similar to NYC in its daily living activity; with people going to work and shopping. Taxicabs are everywhere and people are not hiding in their homes. Rather, they are out trying to make a living and many people can be seen walking around the city in the evening.

Imagine what your immediate situation would be if Albany was bombed today and there was no one to help you when the utilities, food and water failed. In three weeks your desperate and hungry neighbors might be looting from you just to survive. Looting and recycling of anything not permanently attached is a major mode of economic survival in Iraq. People support themselves by “recycling” – knocking down power lines to take the wire, taking air conditioning ducts from bombed out buildings – stealing or salvaging anything that can be sold for scrap. Anything you can imagine is lined up on the streets for sale. There has also been an influx of cars from Syria and Turkey. The level of pollution is extremely high, and these additional vehicles make it even higher.

Displaced people live as squatters in the acres of bombed out and looted buildings formerly owned by Hussein. There is little in the way of adequate water and sanitation in these buildings. Some people live there because they make money renting their own houses to foreigners, while others have lost their jobs and homes. Still others have been squeezed out of homes already filled up with extended family. Despite the extremely inadequate living conditions, these squatters often say they would rather kill themselves than face eviction with no place to go. Individuals in the U.S. Military have prevented the Iraqi government from evicting them.

AK47s, limit one per family, are used for personal protection. Families can be compensated for civilian deaths. These realities are not only painful, but also complex and disturbing, such as the situation Tychostup described in which a man apparently murdered his wife and then applied for compensation, claiming she was killed by the military. If you travel around Baghdad in a white SUV, it is only a matter of time before you will come under attack. This is because the food service supplying hot meals to the U.S. Military bases make their deliveries in white SUVs. Other less obvious vehicles are now replacing them.

The majority of Iraqis Tychostup spoke to told her they love Bush. They want an end to the U.S. occupation so that they can run their own country, but they don't want the U.S. to leave immediately, as chaos and civil war would ensue. The positive feelings Iraqis have toward Bush are directly related to the terror they faced under Saddam Hussein. She describes being confronted by hotel employees who were shocked to hear her plan to vote for "anyone but Bush" in the upcoming elections (a phrase that she explains she actually dislikes, as it is an inadequate attitude in the fight for real change and progress). She explained the threats Americans face to their constitution and civil liberties through the Patriot Act, etc. and the hotel employees told her their personal stories of the terror that was life under Hussein. Tychostup pointed out that before the bombing, the Iraqis she interviewed feared reprisal from the government and would only say- "we don't want to be bombed, want to be friends with the U.S., and we love Saddam". At this point in the occupation, Tychostup reports that Iraqis now actually have protest demonstrations - including women's demands for equal rights.

Tychostup also addressed her concerns about the upcoming U.S. election and the illegitimacy of Bush's election in 2000. Why, she asked, didn't the American people protest the stolen election more fervently and what will happen when the next election is over? If Kerry wins, Tychostup fears that people will become complacent at a critical point when they should be demanding positive action and accountability from their administration. Will the lies that have been used to send us to war continue to be tolerated? How do we keep the energy alive to effect change here in the U.S.? Tychostup made the controversial suggestion that Bush being re elected may be the only way to motivate people to protest him and the direction he is taking this country in. She also pointed out that we have to face our future involvement in Iraq with sensitivity and awareness of the realities facing the Iraqis, while never forgetting how we were lied to by the Bush administration.