Update from Paul Chan in Iraq

[Ok, I know you're all edgy about the Pete Townshend thing, but thought I'd share this bit from Paul Chan's website nationalphilistine.org. Paul has been in Iraq for the past month and has been posting very interesting (and well written) entries on his site. This is the most recent but I encourage y'all to go back and check out the others.]

January 12 : Baghdad (by way of Amman, Jordan)

Dear you,

This is a quick note letting you know I'm fine but have been unable to communicate outside of Iraq for some time because of the FUCKING Pentagon and their email "attack" (the story broke Saturday morning on CNN.com). The whole Internet infrastructure in Iraq was shut down because of it. We couriering stuff into Amman, Jordan, to be sent out.

The situation in Iraq is the same, which is to say not much. Those who can afford to prepare for a coming war do, buying petrol and water parrifin for heat and lighting. Those who cannot pay pray. The rest are busy trying to get the international media's attention on the plight of the Iraqi people and the devastation another war will bring to this country. War preparation is above all a class issue for me. There are divisions between the upper, middle, and lower classes in their perspectives on what can be done about living through an invasion. Most of the upper echelons of Iraqi society think that Baghdad will be ablaze with street fighters beating back the Americans. The middle class (if you can call it that) have largely left it to the fates, having had little to no history of political self-determination. The poor of Iraq wants to see the invasion over with. The sanctions have made their life already impossible, why not a war to shake things up a bit: what's there to lose? A young poor Iraqi teenage girl summed it up nicely when she said that she can't wait for the invasion so she can marry an American soldier. Desperation and creativity doesn't make that strange of bedfellows. Despite the differences on how one will survive a war and how a war will be waged in the country, they all agree that if there is a war, it won't begin until AFTER the invasion. It is incandescently clear that Iraq does not have the capabilities to fight the American military juggernaut. The real story of Iraq's survival will begin after the Americans come (if they come, yes there is still time and the means to stop the war, there is always time because tomorrow is today) and set up their puppet regime. A media escort and veteran of the Iran/Iraq war said, "They will have an occupation in hell."

I'm not ready to live in hell. And I assume the wonderful people I've met here in Baghdad aren't ready either, regardless of how many litres of petrol they buy off the black market. I also assume that you aren't ready for hell either, since by all accounts, in Jordan, Syria, and Turkey the sentiment is that there will be no way to contain the resentment an unjust war will bring to the Middle East. The resentment is beginning to build into a political program that promises nothing short of mass political insurrection, here and abroad, back home, where I live and you too.

I have tried to make my work here with a certain sensitivity and language to describe another kind of Iraq existing in another kind of reality marred by economic sanctions, the weight of war, and (American) popular culture. But I can feel myself losing this sensitivity. The fear is becoming overwhelming and the space for describing the taste of lamb's head stew made with food rations and trash is disappearing.

Perhaps the time and space will come again. In the meantime (what a word) there is (still) a war to stop. I am sure you've heard about the January 18th protests (global by the way, since the German, Japanese, and Italian delegations in Baghdad have informed us of their country's intention of doing solidarity protests on that date). I've been rereading Martin Luther King Jr.'s moving speech against the Vietman war delivered at New York's Riverside Church in 1967 and will try to finish off one more piece of writing based on it before I return to the States.

My return date is dicey at the moment but rest assured I'm well taken care of. Support group I will contact you first regarding my flight back. Let your media contacts know that I'm returning and that I'll talk to anyone about the work we've done here (can continue to do, members of the Iraq peace team continue to come into Baghdad and will do so throughout January and February, war or no war).

This turned out not to be such a quick note. I'll see you soon. Baghdad is tense and beautiful, as usual, by the way.

Posted by Brian Stefans at January 14, 2003 10:09 AM