The Hidden Face of War

Though it might be difficult to believe, these photographs were taken a few days ago in Baghdad. They show a side of Iraq that the mainstream media (MSM) completely ignores. They are among several photos taken during the recent festival of Eid - a three-day holiday following the holy month of Ramadan - that were recently posted on a blog run by the photographer's brother. The blogger, Sooni, is a 35-year-old IT manager from Baghdad. In his "About me" profile, he gives just two words: "Free man!"

Last month, Sooni posted an answer to the following question that was sent to him by an American blogger: "What do I tell the liberals that say we should leave? Do the majority of Iraqis hate the Americans and want them out? Are they even aware or grateful of the sacrifices that the soldiers and their families have to endure?"

The last paragraph of Sooni's response reads as follows:

"Tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed in terrorist acts but they burst in millions to the polling stations to defend their freedom and because most of them believe it’s the only way to gain the peace back, the freedom that was granted to the Iraqis by the Americans soldiers, and yes the Iraqis are fully aware of what the Americans have done to Iraq and they are really grateful and I wont be surprised if we built a statue for the brave American soldiers who fall in Iraq defending their country and people and Iraq and its people and the whole free world."

Of course, this is the opinion of just one Iraqi, but it is an opinion that is rarely heard in the MSM and one that might be more common than we in the West realize. About a year after the invasion, a poll of 3,444 Iraqis, representative of 93% of the population, revealed that 19% of Iraqis saw the coalition forces as liberators; that is, about 1 in 5. A further 8% said they regarded coalition forces as both liberators and occupiers. This means that although some had mixed feelings, more than 1 out of every 4 Iraqis saw the coalition forces as liberators a year after the invasion (admittedly this poll was conducted before the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal erupted). The respondents were also asked how they had felt about the coalition forces at the time of the invasion. Forty-three percent said they had seen them as liberators back then, and another 9% said they had considered them as both liberators and occupiers. In other words, 1 out of every 2 Iraqis considered the Americans and their allies as liberators when they first invaded Iraq.

Since the monstrous birth of the insurgency, the anti-war crowd have delighted in ridiculing Dick Cheney's pre-invasion prediction that "we will be greeted as liberators." They have enjoyed pointing out that the Iraqi people did not receive the invading forces with outstretched arms, or shower them with gifts of flowers and chocolate. But if, as this poll shows, half of the population did see them as liberators, why weren't they greeted as such? Well, the fact is that to some extent they were. All the following photographs of grateful, happy, sometimes ecstatic Iraqi children and their families were snapped by American troops during the first two months following the invasion. I have never seen one photograph like this in the MSM.