Riverbend on Hosting Bush's GWOT

Today we hear from one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Riverbend, author of Baghdad Burning. She is a college educated, middle class, Sunni, fluent English writer who has been relating her experience of the war as an Iraqi in Baghdad. In today's post, Unbelievable... she offers an Iraqi perspective on Bush's speech:

Bush said:

"Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war. ... The commander in charge of coalition operations in Iraq, who is also senior commander at this base, General John Vines, put it well the other day. He said, 'We either deal with terrorism and this extremism abroad, or we deal with it when it comes to us.'"

He speaks of 'abroad’ as if it is a vague desert-land filled with heavily-bearded men and possibly camels. 'Abroad’ in his speech seems to indicate a land of inferior people- less deserving of peace, prosperity and even life.

Don’t Americans know that this vast wasteland of terror and terrorists otherwise known as 'Abroad’ was home to the first civilizations and is home now to some of the most sophisticated, educated people in the region?

Don’t Americans realize that 'abroad’ is a country full of people- men, women and children who are dying hourly? 'Abroad’ is home for millions of us. It’s the place we were raised and the place we hope to raise our children- your field of war and terror.

The war was brought to us here, and now we have to watch the country disintegrate before our very eyes. We watch as towns are bombed and gunned down and evacuated of their people. We watch as friends and loved ones are detained, or killed or pressured out of the country with fear and intimidation.