Baghdad prepares for war

[Evanauto]

With just a few minutes left on President Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave or face war, the anxiety in Baghdad was palpable. Families hunkered down at homes stocked with flashlights and water, and a once-buzzing city of five million people looked to be a ghost town.

"Why? Why? Why? Why do the Americans want to destroy beautiful Baghdad?" gallery owner Amel Al-Khadairy said by phone from her home on the Tigris River, panic detectable in her voice. "All we Iraqis feel this is a big injustice."

Baghdad shut down fast on Wednesday. Normally clogged roads emptied out. Metal doors clanked shut over shops and cafés. Residents raced to stock up on supplies and dollars. The value of the Iraqi dinar has plummeted to its lowest level ever. It takes 3,050 dinar to buy a dollar now, up from 2,300 two months ago.

Machine guns were mounted on the roofs of government buildings. Walls of sandbags appeared on street corners. Baath Party members in olive-green uniforms patrolled the city in groups of four or five, armed with Kalashnikov rifles.

Some items were hard to find. "I went to pharmacies looking for antibiotics, and stomach ache and headache medicines, but they had no more. They were out of Valium too," said Wamid Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University.

Nadhmi said he and his wife and four children would begin the night sleeping in their bedrooms. "I don't know if we'll stay there. If the rockets come we'll all move to the ground floor," he said.

Some warned a tough battle was ahead for Americans entering Baghdad. "We'll kill Bush," said Mary Rose El-Nasser. "Bush is our enemy."

Her husband Sabah, who owns a Lebanese restaurant, raced to serve a last meal before shutting down. "I have to finish off the meat supply," he said on the phone. "Everyone is worried sick. But people are in here. At least when you eat, you don't talk."

The ominous mood fueled a swirl of rumors. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz squelched talk that he had defected or been shot with an appearance on Baghdad television at 8:30 p.m. local time. Dressed in military uniform with a pistol strapped to his belt, he warned Iraqis not to believe rumors about the government disintegrating. "We were born in Iraq and we will die in Iraq — either as martyrs, which is a great honor, or naturally," said Aziz, one of Saddam's closest aides.

[NoNameProphet]

Things are hard for the people right now. They might have been walking for the past 20 hours to get away from the impending war. They can't just drive off like we might be able to, and they have to deal with heat. Also you'd need to factor in them carrying all their provisions and possessions.

I say we should all hope for the middle and lower classes of the world who are caught between the struggles of government, buisiness, and upper-class. These people are the ones that feel the war. They are the soldiers, and the casualties.

Just look at the sanctions US has imposed on Iraq. These won't hurt Saddam or his organizations. He is able to hoard up supplies and use all sorts of methods to get what he needs. The only thing this does is hurt the people, killing millions a year. It's a sad state of affairs for the world....

[NJDeadzone]

the peoples of this region are satisfied with nothing, therefore they are in awe at the freedoms Western nations will bestow upon them...