IamA I live in Baghdad Iraq,AMA.

I'm a former US Marine, I was there in the initial invasion in 2003, and again in late 2005/early 2006. The first time I went over there I had a thought in the back of my mind that we were in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. The second time I went over there didn't ease my mind, and pretty much none of the news out of there since then has convinced me we did the right thing. So my question is, is your life better after Sadam? What about your family and friends lives?

At first life was better then when the american forces left it went back to shit and became even worse then when we were under saddam it's getting better and better now then we get this ISIS thing pop up when we are making some progress and it's just a huge cluster fuck. none of my friend's and family were really affected except one my uncle actually died and i don't really want to go into that.

What is the general consensus on Nouri al-Maliki? Do you think Iraq would be better off with the INA in office?

I'm sorry but what's INA?

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Waking up taking a shower eating walking to Uni staying there for 8 hours coming back home having another shower eating studying for 1-3 hours then i usualy ethier go to my parents hour or my friend's house it's very routine-ish and nothing unique ever happens i do read the news however and i understand the hardships people have here about 85% of the people in Iraq have it tough it's not easy to live here unless your semi rich even tho education is free only about 10 -20 % of high school graduates go to uni because they need to help their familey etc.

Are there any shortages of supplies and or services?

Not everyone has access to clean water since our Tap water isn't clean and some people can't afford water bottles and the goverment gives free power but it cuts off very often so most people get their own generator and gas prices are retarded here even tho we are an oil countery.

With the unstable climate there do you fear for your safety?

Yes i do, Sleeping at night and not knowing if your gonna wake up the next day every single day is really hard i have a lot of trouble sleeping usually and on the street it's also very risky we have a lot of check points with *Bomb detectors * that don't even work at all and that's pretty much the same story in my home.

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Yes we aren't better off if the American staid in Iraq i think we would be in a much better state.

I have a sneaky suspicion we will be back.

Could be but since they dropped Al-Maliki we have had a much better goverment so far so if we can get rid of ISIS ASAP i think we would be in a nice spot until Iraq stabilizes in a few years.

Dude are you jacked up about the new Star Wars movie?

More of a Star Trek and Star Gate fan.

Oh yeah? Did you see the Star Trek episode where Picard wakes up to find himself on the surface of Kataan, a non-Federation planet. A woman identifies herself as his wife, Eline, telling Picard that he is Kamin, an iron weaver recovering from a feverish sickness. Picard talks of his memories on the Enterprise, but Eline and their close friend Batai try to convince Picard that his memories were only dreams, and acclimate him into their society as Kamin. Picard begins living out his life as Kamin in the village of Ressik, starting a family with Eline, and learning to play the flute. Kamin spends much time outdoors studying nature. As the years pass, he begins to notice that the planet is suffering a worldwide drought owing to increased radiation from the planet's sun. He sends reports to the planet's leaders, who seem to ignore his concerns. Ultimately, Kamin confronts a government official who privately admits to him that the government already knows this but wish to keep it a secret to avoid a panic. The official points out to Kamin that they only just recently managed to successfully launch artificial satellites using primitive rockets: their race simply does not possess the technology level needed to evacuate even a small colony's worth of people before their planet is rendered uninhabitable.

Meanwhile, on board the Enterprise, the crew continues attempts to revive Picard. They try to block the influence of the probe, but this only makes Picard worse, leaving them no choice but to let it continue. They trace the rocket's trajectory to a system whose sun had gone nova 1,000 years before, exterminating all life in the system.

Years pass and Kamin grows old, outliving his wife. Kamin and his daughter Meribor continue their study of the drought. They find that it is not temporary; extinction of all life on the planet is inevitable. One day, while playing with his grandson, Kamin is summoned by his adult children to watch the launch of a rocket, which everyone seems to know about except him. As he walks outside into the glaring sunlight, Kamin sees Eline and Batai, as young as when he first saw them. They explain that he has already seen the rocket, just before he came there. Knowing that the planet was doomed, the planet's leaders placed the memories of their culture into a probe and launched it into space, in the hope that it would find someone who could tell others about their species. Picard then realizes the entire context: "Oh, it's me, isn't it?", he says, "I'm the someone...I'm the one it finds."

Picard wakes up on the bridge of the Enterprise to discover that while he perceives many decades have transpired, only 25 minutes have passed. The now inactive probe is brought aboard the Enterprise and the crew finds a small box within it. A somber Riker gives the box to Picard who opens it to find Kamin's flute. Picard, now adept at the instrument, plays the melody he learned during his life as Kamin.

TLDR The episode the Inner Light is my favorite have you seen it?

Wall of text i'm not going to read

And in other news the sky is blue and the sun is yellow

Which one are you in the pics? Aber?

Yep

every country has nice areas, are there any places in iraq that you love?

The north is filled with amazing mountiens and lovely views Baghdad has a lot of nice entertainment parks it's a nice looking country honestly.

What is something you wish people in the West understood about Baghdad/Iraq/the Middle East?

We aren't behind in tech at all

What is your favorite Iraqi thing to eat? What would you say your national dish was?

Id say our national dish is Pajja which is basicly a sheep's head and meat in 1 huge dish

my favourite iraqi food would be Iraqi Kebab but i do eat mostly westren-ish food

Thanks for the answer! Out of curiosity what would make an Iraqi kebab different from say, a Turkish one or an Iranian one? Or is it mostly the same?

I'm not sure so i can't really answer.

How much does the situation with ISIS affect life in Baghdad? And how common is it to find Iraqis that ideologically support ISIS?

About 75% of Sunni's support ISIS the Shia don't support them at all because well they are Sunni and the ISIS siuation hasn't affected Baghdad all that much other then the fact that it's harder to enter/leave Baghdad now.

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People do but here's what they don't understand my dad used to work with the American army when they were here and when he talked to some of the soldiers who trained Iraqis he relised how little of a fuck iraqi people give for their countery because we were opperased by Saddam so much people just stopped believing our countery will get any better at any point.

Do you think that after Saddam was removed, people identify less with the country of Iraq and more along religious and ethnic lines?

Yes.after Saddam was removed iraq wasn't really a country anymore it was just a large cluster fuck of many groups Kurds Zidies sunni shia chirstians it's quite bad when you have a country with an aggresive pouplation that has that many ethic groups.

Is it the public opinion/your opinion that Americans are ignorant of the severity of your situation over there? For that fact, do you think that we are ignorant of most of the world issues of today?

As for the public opinion most people don't blame America for this they blame Al-Maliki as for me I also don't blame america and i do blame Al-Maliki as well. as for ignorant well Americans have some small issues like not relising alot of countries don't actually pay for education and from what iv read on the internet Americans are easy to trick :D

What kind of computer are you using to type this on?

Custom Build PC mostly for studying and gaming I5 4670k 2x GTX 980 GIGABYTE G1 Gaming 16 GB Corsair Platnium RAM Asus Maximus IV Motherboard 1TB Samsung 850 SSD 3TB WD HHD 7200 rpm Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit In case you didn't know tech isn't any behind in iraq

Do you Amazon prime? Can you order pizza on the internet?

No you can not order things from the internet as we do not have a proper mail system.

I was just curious because you're an architecture student. You run autocad and whatnot?

Yes

What are your plans for the future? Going to stay in Baghdad?

No i have been atemptting to get a VISA since 2010

Where do you want to go?

Honestly i want to live in Japan or South Korea but right now the only VISA option is America.

Is education censored like it is in some places in the US? Is god taught in schools as fact or myth, or somewhere in between? Is evolution and the actual age of the earth (4.5 billionish) given precedence over religious dogma?

No education is not cencored at all and it's free as well all the way from kindergarden to university and god is taught as fact we have a full class deticated to chirstian/islamic education and no we have nothing about evolution

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Not very much sleeping at night and not knowing if your gonna wake up the next day every single day is really hard i have a lot of trouble sleeping usually and on the street it's also very risky we have a lot of check points with *Bomb detectors * that don't even work at all and that's pretty much the same story in my home anyone can break your door and go in steal everything kill you then go out and no one will blink an eye if your sunni and hes shia or Vice Versa depending on where you live

Do you think the east and west can ever reconcile their ideological differences? Or is this just a continuation of the crusades a thousand years ago and we should just both agree to disagree and leave each other to our own devices?

The east and west will reconcile their ideological differences when ethier:

A-Religion is completely wiped out

B- There is only 1 dominate religion in the world

i don't see any other things that might fix that

What is your personal opinion and the public opinion of America? What are your thoughts on The international community's response to Isis?

Do you mean my opinion on America? If so well i'm a huge red socks fan and i love your culture and music as for the public opinion? well america is pretty much the only and biggest reason why iraq is in it's state right now while i don't agree FULLY with that i do think if they american army staid in iraq we would be in a much better state right now.

Thanks for the answer. Is it a negative opinion or a positive opinion overall?

For most people it's very negative when it comes to America for me i guess you can I like Americans and thier culture but not their goverment

Do you think a long-time occupation of iraq by allied forces, under UN-mandate, would have helped iraq stabilize (similar to european nations after WWII)?

Yes i think it would of helped Iraq stabilize a bit but if the American army staid in Iraq after 2012 i think it would be pretty stable and perfect right now.

Have you had any personal experiences with isis?

No.

three questions. Do you plan to move to a safer place? What do you think is the best way to solve the conflicts between groups in Iraq and middle east? Also, is true the people around your place calling ISIS as Daesh?

1-Yes i'm trying to get a US visa since 2010 2-There is none other then uniting the whole world under 1 religion or wiping religion out completely 3-Yes Daesh is basicly ISIS it's the same word in arabic.

what is the percentage of the sunnis - shias in irac? would it be better if there were 2 separate states? one for the sunnis another for the shias? is it the oil that makes probably this separation non viable?

About 85% Shia and the rest are Sunni.No i don't think that would be a decent soultion we just have to cummunicate properly with the people show them they are all muslims/humans/people and no the oil market has nothing to do with that

Hi there!

I'm really interested in Sunni-Shiite relations in the Middle East, so I have a question about that:

How have Sunni-Shiite relations in Baghdad changed over the past 10-15 years?

Also, I know that many Iraqi tribes have both Sunni and Shia members, can you explain to me how that functions? Does the tribal identity often trump the religious identity, thus getting rid of any differences?

Thanks for your time, and stay safe!

1-Yes.when saddam was on the chair Sunni's were completely protected by him and now Shia's are able to roam free and alot of Sunni's are killed because well they are Sunni's this is basicly what sparked ISIS 2-No it doesn't trump the religious identity but some shia/sunni women marry sunni/shia men which changes them into sunni/shia and the tribes don't want to kill their own women or thier husbands.

how far away is isis from your home?

Not very much Mousle is pretty close to Baghdad

Going back to the initial invasion and removal of Hussein, do you think things are better or worse for it?

Worse

With so much turmoil from religious conflict, is there any anti-religion movement there? Are there atheists in Iraq?

No there isn't a movement as for athiests id say they exsist but they are VERY much an extreame minority

I was there during the invasion. I almost got hit by saddams statue 's head in Fridos square. I just returned from a 15 day assignment in northern Iraq. What is the general feeling of your age group as to what is happening in your country at the moment?

Most people at my age are just pissed off they can't facebook as much

Why were a majority of the attacks we dealt with near the campus? There was a natural choke hold 4 blocks down the way near the rail hop.

Edit: more in the sense that it would close the uni for weeks snd really not threaten the weeks. I still dont get it.

AFAIK most students in Iraq have their own idea on how they are going to live their lives and according to terriorists if you don't deticate your life to Islam your commiting a Sin

Do you think Iraq would be better off with Sunni, Shia, and Kurds each getting their own independent nation?

No

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No Kurdistan is most likely the safest and nicest place in Iraq

If you don't mind me asking, what religion are you/your family associated with? Thanks

I am a Muslim however i do believe all religons are equal

Are you Sunni or Shi'a? (Just interested)

I'm an Iraqi Muslim living in the UK, but most of my family (except immediate family) live in Baghdad now.

Also, how old are you?

I'm a Muslim and that's it but if your so interested i was born a Shia

Do you think Iraq should stay as one country, or do you think it should be partitioned along at least somewhat more logical ethnic/religious lines a lá Yugoslavia? So for example an independent Kurdistan in the north, and separate Sunni and Shia nations in the west/east respectively?

I don't think that would fix much because if that happened it would be a cross-country war instead of a religous one if that ever happens it won't stop

What is the general opinion on the US there. Especially the soldiers. Do you all hate them or love them?

My dad used to work with US soldiers and i met a few and there was this one guy named Jack i used to hang out with all the time he was really cool and overall just chilled as for the public opinion? everyone blames America

Serious question. Why do they scream Allahu Ackbar all the time in videos and etc?

Allah Ackbar (الله أكبر) means Praise God in arabic since Allah= God in Arabic and most people are quite religious here that's pretty much it.