Who Are The Iraqis

[هانى الشرقاوى]

Dear Friends, While recovering and re-organizing my hard drive, after it was wiped out due to a glitch, I came across an article written by Joe Bob Briggs that I have saved before. Unfortunately, I lost the original title and date, as all the directories, subdirectories were lost, and all the files had only numerical distinction. The facts are astounding and I hope that everyone in the world be aware of them. Those Iraqis who were humiliated, tortured, and treated in a sub-human way, are actually the descendents of one of the oldest and most advanced civilizations known to human kind. They mastered science, mathematics, medicine, and introduced the first legal system known to humans. Read on and keep reminding yourself of the great achievements that the inhabitants of this country once realized and the way they are now! It is simply sad! We pray to God that the situation there will soon be rectified and that this great country doesn’t get to be divided and lose its identities. It is extremely hard for me to visualize that these people invited destruction and death inflicted due to the foreign invasion to their country tearing it apart and destroying its infrastructure. Well, I’ll leave you now with Mr. Briggs and bid you peace, Awni Sammakia *-*-*-*- By JOE BOB BRIGGS NEW YORK (UPI) -- Every decade or so, we should remind ourselves of who the Iraqis are: 1. Twelve-thousand years ago, they invented irrigated farming. They got to be so good at it that, today; they can still produce all the food they need even when "sanctions" are imposed. 2. They invented writing. 3. They figured out how to tell time. 4. They founded modern mathematics. 5. In the Code of Hammurabi, they invented the first legal system that protects the weak, the widow, and the orphan. 6. Five-thousand years ago, they had philosophers who attempted to list every known thing in the world. 7. They were using Pythagoras' theorem 1,700 years before Pythagoras. 8. They invented artificial building materials, some kind of pre-fab-crete stuff used to construct high-rise towers. 9. Ur, in southeast Iraq, is assumed to be the place we're all descended from. 10. They were the first people to build cities and live in them. 11. For thousands of years, they wrote the greatest poetry, history, and "sagas" in the world. 12. Because they were great horse breeders, they invented the cavalry in war. 13. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad contains some of the most outstanding stone, metal and clay sculptures, and inscriptions created in the history of the world. Some of them are more than 7,000 years old. . 14. The first school for astronomers was established by Iraqis. This is how the "wise men" got to be so wise. They knew how to follow the star. 15. Beginning around 800 A.D., the Iraqis founded universities that imported teachers from throughout the civilized world to teach medicine, mathematics, philosophy, theology, literatureterature, and poetry. 16. For the first 1,200 years of its existence, Baghdad was regarded as one of the most refined, civilized and festive cities in the world. 17. Abraham, the father of Israel, was from Iraq. 18. Abraham, the father of Islam, was from Iraq. 19. Abraham, the father and "model" of Christian faith, was from Iraq. 20. Iraq is the second largest reserve of oil. 21. Before 1980, Iraq has the largest number of date palm trees in the world. 22. Iraqi wheat, rice, and meat are considered from the finest types in the world. 23. Iraq has the biggest soft water/population ratio in the world, seven rivers. 24. Iraqis once considered as the Germans of Arabs with highest percent of highly educated people. 25. Iraq is one of the world's richest territories in historical sites and holy shrines. Saddam Hussein doesn't regard himself as the heir of Abraham, or even as the heir of Muhammad. He regards himself, first and foremost, as the heir of Nebuchadnezzar. He identifies, in other words, with the enslaver, not the enslaved. Everything we know about the rest of Iraq tells us that Saddam is the exception, not the Iraqis.