From: avaaz@avaaz.org
Subject: Iraq is Dying
Dear friends,
The nightmare in Iraq worsens daily. It's make-or-break time -- but next Thursday in Egypt, we could start to turn the tide. Because on May 3rd – for the first time ever - top US and Iraqi leaders will meet with Iran and Syria plus international powers. They can agree on negotiations to end the war -- or escalate their bloody conflict.
Iraq: It Ends on May 3rd Avaaz is launching a major advertising and text-message campaign inside Iraq this week to bring Iraqi voices to this decisive meeting. As citizens around the world, let's join our voices with theirs to end this war -- sign the petition calling for negotiations and a withdrawal of US troops here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan/ To make sure we're heard, we'll hand-deliver our petition to the leaders' conference in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 3rd, and project Iraqi text-messages on to a huge wall near the US Capitol building in Washington.
Thousands of Iraqi Avaaz members have supported our N.E.W. plan -- for all-party "Negotiations", "Empowering" international mediators and the responsible "Withdrawal" of US troops. Please read the personal email below from Khalid, an Iraqi Avaaz member. Khalid and our other Iraqi members need a show of global support from the rest of us. The campaign is already supported by over 75,000 people as well as key international experts -- let's gather a massive, united voice of Iraqis and citizens round the world to tell our leaders to do the right thing in Iraq:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan/ With hundreds of thousands dead and 4 million made refugees, just criticising the US government for this catastrophe is not enough. It's now the responsibility of all of us to help save Iraq, and the only solution is a political solution.
Khalid Jarrar and his mother Faiza Jarrar have been wonderful supporters of Avaaz in Iraq. We asked Khalid to write a message to Avaaz members, here's what he emailed us yesterday:
alright:) feel free to edit it if its too long. and just for the record, i am not a drama queen, these were written for real, and tears in my eyes are my witness...
Dear AVAAZ,
I want to introduce myself, and tell you a story, but i don't know how to start, and where to stop.
My name is Khalid, i am an environmental engineering student and i am 24, but this is the least important to know about me, what's really important for me to tell, and for you to know, is that I am Iraqi, and that I have a deep, deep wound in my soul, that has been bleeding for over four years now.
Iraq, my soul, is bleeding. And i had to leave it against my will, because of the incredibly bad security situation that led to me getting kidnapped and my family paying a huge ransom, which made me leave immediately after i was released in fear that i would be kidnapped again. I left Iraq one month before my graduation and had to come to Jordan, which made me lose two years of my university time and life, but even worse, made me lose the company of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
I had to travel, leaving Iraq behind me, to live like a refuge, one of a million other refuges, in a country of less than five millions people, that already has its own financial problems without needing our additional burden to add to it. I am an Iraqi refuge in Jordan.
Since I left in July 2005, things have exponentially deteriorated in every possible aspect, now people hardly get 1 hours of electricity a day, they have water problems, regular lack of gas that its prices multiplied about 20 times since the war. Let alone the main and real problems of the actual presence of an occupation that is leaching on the country and causing the destruction to its people, unity, sovereignty, infrastructure and economy.
Iraq is the loving mother, that gave birth to thinkers and builders, people that enriched humanity with their contributions in all aspects of life, people that their civilization accumulated for over 7000 years till now.
Iraq, the noble wisdom, the land of the two flowing rivers, the land of the mosques and churches, is in crises, and needs your help.
yes. it needs your help.
Iraqis need the support of the world, of every human being that believes in the values of justice and peace, of every person that cares about the judgment of history on what the world did when Iraq needed its support the most. Iraq, needs your voice, to support the voices of its own people, to help remove that injustice, and help it rise up again and stand on its feet.
Help us demand to give Iraq back to Iraqis, and to prove to the future generations once more, that occupations don't last, that occupations are wrong, and that the will of people is invincible. Help us clear to them that our hearts and minds, our values and sense of justice, are stronger than any tank, battleship or rocket. Help us by signing AVAAZ.org petition that will be presented to the politicians discussing the future of Iraq security, help by asking your friends to do so, let our voices be louder than the roars of weapons and the madness of greeds, help us, sign AVAAZ.org petition now, let our voice be heard, support Iraq today, and once the last occupying soldier leaves iraq, and once we rebuild our country with out own hands, we will reciever you in Baghdad, and you will see the love and gratitude competed by nothing but Iraqi hospitality.
Together we can prove that our brotherhood is strong, together we can prove that our bonds are real, I can see that day coming, really soon.
Khalid
Click below to join Khalid in telling US, Iraqi and international leaders to do the right thing for Iraq:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan/ With hope,
Ricken, Graziela, Paul, Tom and the whole Avaaz team
