BRIDGE TO BAGHDAD

Baghdad's Last Summit, and the Very, Very Important People Who Never Came

TORONTO — How much Iraq, my home country, has changed. And I know all too well that the changes did not happen overnight. It was, and is, systematic destruction, and for me it started three decades ago during the run up to Baghdad’s last planned summit.

Back then, in 1981, I was a newly graduated civil engineer working on the V.V.I.P.B. – Very, Very Important Persons Building — at Baghdad International Airport, a project that was a symbol of glory, abundance and growth as Iraq prepared itself t

Easter in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — At first, I mistakenly thought that the sound was caused by the rattle of two iron rods. This is the Stone Age method still used — ironic, in a land considered one of the wealthiest in resources — to alert residents that the gas cylinder man’s cart is in their neighborhood.

Then I recognized the sound as the ringing of church bells, a rhythm I had not heard for so long, since where I lived until recently in Canada I seldom, if ever, heard the ding-dong of church bells. I realized it w

Yasmine Mousa - At War Blog - The New York Times

Like many others, I was intrigued by the attention the film “American Sniper” was getting. I knew I was treading murky waters, but I decided to follow the herd and see the movie. Unlike most people in the crowd, I had a very personal stake in the film. “American Sniper” takes place in Iraq, my homeland, which I left shortly after the American-led invasion that Chris Kyle took part in. So the film, powerful and sad, left me with mixed thoughts and reminiscences.

Falluja — where much of the movie

Renovation Reality War Puts Five-Star Dreams on Hold - At War Blogs - The New York Times

To this day, rusty flagpoles stand in the courtyards of Baghdad’s major hotels. They are reminders of a promising future that never materialized.
In 1983, Baghdad was to host a conference of nonaligned-movement nations, an honor that would, everyone hoped, restore some of the Abbasid-era glory of the city.

When The Victim Is Victimized

Iraqi protesters have endured so much for the sake of their homeland. Since October 1, 2019, they have been rallying in Tahrir Square, in the heart of Baghdad and southern provinces against 16 years of corruption, unemployment and inefficient public services. The protests later escalated to calls for overthrow of the administration and to stop the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq’s affairs.

The Lie

"I'm good," I told my son over the phone, who was calling from Canada. What was I supposed to tell him? I was in Baghdad – the land of the forgotten- pacing the flat roof of the house anxiously. It was a pitch-black evening with no moon in sight. There were no signs of life anywhere. The clanking and humming of the neighborhood's diesel generators masked the deathly stillness of the city. It was barely 8 p.m. in the middle of June, the height of a six-month summer where temperatures regularly re

The Globe and Mail • 11th March 2022

Opinion: I had to flee Iraq with my three children. This is my advice to the refugee mothers of Ukraine

Yasmine Mousa is an Iraqi-Canadian journalist who left Iraq in 2003. She is also a certified translator and interpreter.

For days now I have been glued to the news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reminiscing and thinking about how history keeps repeating itself. It was around this time of year, almost 20 years ago, that we were the terrified people, desperate for a haven from brutal bombing in Baghdad. We Iraqis know firsthand the pain of wars: It’s in our children’s eyes, and inscribed on

Iraqi Militants Stealing Blood for the Injured

embers of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have been holding up blood banks and hospitals at gunpoint, stealing blood for their wounded fighters rather than risk having them arrested at medical facilities, according to Iraqi doctors, employees at health centers and the Sunni insurgents themselves.

In a Tour for Visitors, Baghdad’s Past Is Present

A group of foreign visitors went on a tour of Baghdad recently. Such an event, almost anywhere else, would have passed unnoticed. But this is Baghdad, where the rumblings of a passing thunderstorm recently had people convinced that insurgents had unleashed a string of synchronized bombings.

War in Iraq Propelling A Massive Migration

Inside his cold, crumbling apartment, Saad Ali teeters on the fringes of life. Once a popular singer in his native Baghdad, he is now unemployed. To pay his $45 monthly rent, he borrows from friends. To bathe, he boils water on a tiny heater. He sleeps on a frayed mattress, under a tattered blanket.

Outside, Ali, 35, avoids police officers and disguises his Arabic with a Jordanian dialect. He returns home before 10 p.m. to stay clear of government checkpoints. Like hundreds of thousands of Iraq