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    My Last Thoughts About Iraq
    My Last Thoughts About Iraq
    My Last Thoughts About Iraq
    Ebook70 pages38 minutes

    My Last Thoughts About Iraq

    By Paul Batou

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    About this ebook

    In Baghdad, my memories were sketched in a shadow of pain. Who is going to play the guitar? Who is going to sing? Where am I? Like a migrating bird, will return home. My voice is worn out from calling out for Iraq.

    Oh, Iraq! Once, you were Sumerian or from Uruk, in an era that knew no history. You were Babylonian in a period that knew no love! Ishtar, your soothing eyes are my harbor, my passport to the haven is the window of my prison.

    Ishtar, I was killed once by a flood, and a million times by a creature called man. I was killed by a nation, by many nations. You are in America, look over the sky! There is a very tiny star that shines over the village of Tin. Smile for the birds that fly over tin, smile when dreams and secrets remain in that tiny village. Smile, you are an American born in Iraq.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateMar 13, 2007
    ISBN9781465318107
    My Last Thoughts About Iraq
    Author

    Paul Batou

    Paul Batou, a native Iraqi artist, received a degree in pharmacy in 1982 from the University of Baghdad. While in school, Paul worked and was inspired by many teachers and artists studying at the University. In 1980, he had his first art show in Baghdad. During his years spent in Baghdad, Paul placed his art in several galleries, learned to play the guitar, and was forced into service during the Iraq-Iran war as a medic. In 1989, he fled Iraq with his family and moved to Los Angeles. In the United States, Paul continues to create art and write poems that inspire all those close to him. As a father, an uncle, an artist, and a pharmacist, Paul has achieved the admiration and respect of all those around him.

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    • 5/5
      Paul Batou demands Audience and Respect for Iraq“My Last Thoughts about Iraq” A colorful book about Iraq‘s history and legends, people and traditions, religions and famous sites, war and disaster.While a pharmacy student at the University of Baghdad, Paul Batou and his buddies did not know that war awaited them at the turn of the corner, bringing uncertainties to their lives and thwarting their dreams. Suddenly, instead of attending lectures, they quickly learned how to sleep on an empty stomach, survive sanctions, and dodge bullets.Paul gives an Olympian performance in this artistic reference manual addressing Iraq in three fundamental sections: the history and loss of an ancient civilization ~ Mesopotamia, the betrayal of Iraq’s indigenous people ~ the Assyrians, and the tragedies of war. The book is masterfully woven to take the reader on a journey into Iraq’s history, through the Gates of Ishtar, and the unprecedented aftermath of not one, two, or even three wars that have gripped Iraq into the 21st century and left its people defenseless and globally scattered.In “My Last Thoughts about Iraq,” Paul Batou, now a native of California, constructs a poetic timeline of Iraq with himself in the middle of its early Paleolithic period, ancient civilizations ~ Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria, the Greek, Persian, and Mongol invasions, the Arab conquests, the Ottoman period, World War I and the British mandate, World War II and the monarchy, the new republic, President Saddam Hussein, the Iraq-Iran war, the first Gulf war and weapons inspections, coalition troops, and even the Iraqi death.A must read Book

    Book preview

    My Last Thoughts About Iraq - Paul Batou

    From the Translat-or

    I have come to know Paul since the seventies. We were a bunch of poor young university students with different talents and different ideologies, yet we respected and cared about each other. We were happy to be together, discussing a new novel, walking on the riverside, going to cinemas, attending theatres and concerts. The voices and the smells of those memories are still alive in my head. We were just like a joyful song not yet finished.

    Then the first war started, and we were scattered here and there. Doubts, despair, fear, and the unknown started to grow inside us; the long war was able to kill all our dreams and our expectations. Black banners started to rise at street corners or at front doors, each telling the story of a fallen young soldier.

    Too many changes happened suddenly and painfully. We lost each other in the chaos of the war; our hearts were frozen, our smiles were sad and dead … We were heading toward the hopeless land; we lost the voice of life.

    The war ended after eight long years, but we started another war and then came the twelve hard years of economical sanctions. My life was too burdened for me to stay. I left my dear city of Baghdad. Most of us left and were able to start a new journey of life, thanks to these generous democratic countries that opened their doors widely to us; but our Baghdad is still drinking the death of its people, no matter what their identity is. It is a deep, wide painful wound.

    I found Paul’s Web site after years of disconnecting; I saw his paintings and read his fifteen poems. It was as if I was entering a holy place; I am able to hear the echo of our simple joy that was stolen in a barbaric way. Here in North America, I was able to regain my feelings as a human being; there, we had lost everything. Paul’s poems are so realistic, simply because they are able to express the way we used to be and feel inside that republic of fear—Iraq.

    What I like in Paul’s poems is his ability to draw this completely different, wide picture of life in this old historical city of Baghdad. He focused on the pain, the fear, and the darkness that took over; yet he made a room for confession, forgiveness, and hope. His message through his paintings

    and his poems is a cry against humiliation of the human dignity, wherever it is; it is a cry for justice and peace.

    Paul, you are an inspiration, and I do believe in you … Thank you.

    Your friend,

    Suad Qasha

    The Cleansing of the Iraqi Christians

    The oppression of Mesopotamia started when the Arabs occupied the land in the seventh century. They used a different method to wipe Christianity from their homeland. Many Christians helped the Muslims fight against Persia in the battle of Quadesia. in which the Arabs defeated the Persian Empire. They expected that the new invaders would give freedom to Christians because Christianity is recognized in their holy book: the

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