Uprising Anniversary

"While I was watching the news last night, I recalled how Iraq looked almost the same fifteen years ago. When the gulf war in 1991 started, we fled to Karbala to stay in the house of my mother's cousin. Baghdad was falling apart by the heavy bombings the Coalition forces had launched as a response to Saddam's invasion to Kuwait. I remember that day and how my father drove the car all the way to Karbala while my mother kept reading verses from Quran. I was 10 years-old at the time, but I remember every single moment we went through then.

In the wake of the 1991 Gulf War that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and on March 1st, Karbala was strangely quiet. The war was over as we heard on the BBC which we used to listen to by a small radio that works on two double A batteries. We made the decision, we should go back to Baghdad and we did. Of course, nothing in Baghdad was left but destruction: no water, no electricity and no food. Until now I can't imagine we managed to live and restore our life until 2003.

The news came as fast as thunder. Uprising occurred in Iraq after the seize fire was announced. We were stunned. Who dares to get rid of Saddam? What a huge challenge! Who were they and how did they manage to do so? To discover that, it wasn't that difficult. They were the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south. Baghdad remained as it is because Saddam's forces were in complete control of it despite the complete destruction of the infrastructure."
Treasure of Baghdad