For a decade now, news out of Iraq has been bleak and sparse.This year, Bagdad saw one of its bloodiest summers.. In July alone, over 1,000 Iraqi civilians lost their lives in attacks and bombings. In a recent report, Gyorgy Busztin, General Secretary for Iraq at the UN Assistance Mission states, “The impact of violence on civilians remains disturbingly high, with at least 4,137 civilians killed and 9,865 injured since the beginning of 2013.”
Those numbers are rarely heard in the news today. Media coverage in the region recently gathered steam when this month it was alleged that, “Al Qaeda Terror Warnings,” posed an elevated threat to U.S. travelers. In response, the State Department closed 19 missions across North Africa and the Middle East, including in Iraq.
But what about the Iraqi people? Americans are still brought next to no information about the average Iraqi citizen. Iraqis who go to work day-to-day trying to rebuild their country never make it into the 24-hour news cycle. Earlier this year Stephan Said, an Iraq-American recording artist and human rights activist, decided to break this trend.
Said traveled to Iraq on the anniversary of the 2003 invasion to film a music video for his song, ‘Love, Make the World Go Round.’ He filmed with other Iraqi artists, youth, camera people, producers and civilians. Their goal was simple.
“We wanted to portray daily life there that nobody sees in the rest of the world: to humanize Iraq and to humanize Baghdad,” Said said. “We keep hearing only about the war and the destruction. These people have a life that they’re building.”
Said’s work as a peace activist led him to be selected for the Summer of Peace initiative, a free online resource that brings together social change leaders to discuss and teach way to create and make steps towards peace.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
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We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
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