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Even as Bombings Go On, No Choice but to Hope?

By Gina Chon

This evening while I was waiting in line to order a pizza, I heard sirens and then a loud boom. A few people around me shouted “Incoming” and we walked quickly to the nearest “duck and cover” bunker. The bunker is a small area surrounded by concrete walls that is supposed to offer a bit of protection in the event of a mortar round explosion or other kind of attack. As I walked toward the bunker, I heard another boom shortly after the first one.

As we waited in the bunker for the “all clear” notice, several people tried to make light of the situation. One group of friends brought their box of pizza into the bunker and one of them was munching on a slice. “I always get upset when they try to interrupt a meal,” one of them joked. Another used the occasion to talk about how he couldn’t wait to go home. “Only 65 days left,” he repeated a few times to anyone who would listen.

Fifteen minutes later, we were told it was “all clear” and everyone went about their business. I went back to the pizza place to pick up my pie. I noticed the workers there had stayed in their trailer when the explosions went off. Perhaps they were used to it. I called two friends I was supposed to meet for dinner and told them I would be late, delayed by the explosions. They already figured I wouldn’t be on time because they also heard the booms.

When I got home, I heard the news of the five American soldiers who were killed today because of a suicide bomber attack in the Mansour area of Baghdad. A few hours after that, I got a text message from a friend who lives in the Kurdish region of Iraq. He told me a car bomb had exploded outside a popular hotel in his home town of Sulaimaniyah, one of the safest areas in Iraq. At least one person was killed and dozens were injured.

The day’s events led to a discussion with my Iraqi friends about the situation in Iraq and what has happened here in the last five years. They wondered when the killing would end and talked about the years of suffering experienced by the Iraqi people. But one of my friends said he was still optimistic, partly because he felt he really had no other choice. “We have to have hope,” he told me. “If we don’t have hope, then we might as well die.”

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    • Wake up Veitnam, and smell the dead US soldiers that are gone forever. The only journey now is to follow their leader!
      Yea, and the General in charge of the war in Iraq quit today because of US internal distrust of the war in the USA. What does that message send you? 2.5 T in debt and counting.

    • From what I’ve read, this tragedy is the result of incorrect protocol. At any rate, I’m against any American military personnel moving more than 10-15 metres away from armour or support, at least outside built-up areas, inside Bagdad. In the field this rule doesn’t hold good.
      The price of freedom and security is costly, but history proves the benefits are of lasting substance, to the peoples who dare embrace the highest ideals: Thus the rise of civilization in the world. God Bless the young men and women of the United States of America, whose labors will not be in vain–we shall prevail: Carry on. More than 20 years ago, many of my dearest friends, God Bless their young souls, were taken-away by the enemies of civilization–barbarists in not so distant lands … Today that era is undone, the global world is born.
      God Bless America, and God Bless the civilization of the American peoples–rock of the world.