Razan's+Page

= I Believe That Every War Has an End = = = media type="file" key="Razan_TIB .mp3" align="left" width="240" height="20"

//My name is Razan Naqeeb I was born in Kuwait in 1990 months before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. My family and I left Kuwait 20 years ago and have not had the opportunity to return. I moved to the United States in December of 1999. I am currently a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder where I am majoring in Economics. My inspiration for writing this piece is my desire to one day return to the Middle East. //  I come from a far away land where spectacular castles used to grace the sand. I come from a place where knowledge and prosperity used to flow like the Tigris. I come from the place where one of the greatest ancient civilizations, on earth used to live. This far away land has been destroyed by war and poverty but I believe it still exists.

I believe that the war in Iraq will end.

My family is from the town of Kirkuk, a city in Northern Iraq. My family history dates back to the Ottoman Empire, where Kirkuk has been a part of my family longer than it has been a piece of Iraq.

I was born in Kuwait months before the first Gulf War. After the Iraqi Invasion in August 1990 my parents and I fled the country and were never able to return. We immigrated from and to many countries until 1999 when we settled in the United States.

I have never had the chance to go back to Iraq or Kirkuk but I believe that one day, I will.

Kirkuk lives in my imagination; I have never been there and I can only piece together the few stories I heard as a child. The stories about my great grandfather and how he was a great and honorable judge and the stories about my family’s history about how the empire expanded south and my family migrated with it. The imaginary Kirkuk in my head is a marvelous combination of those stories and I believe that one day I will go back.

Iraq has been blessed and cursed with the second largest world supply of black gold. A once beautiful and prosperous country has been war stricken for decades by Saddam Hussein who dreamt of world domination. The people of Iraq were driven to the edge of poverty and lived through hell on earth. From torture chambers to mass genocide fear ruled for more than 30 years.

Then, in March of 2003 at the start of the second gulf war, what had looked like a glimmer of hope for a peaceful future instead turned into a seven-year power struggle over one of the world’s largest natural resources. Mankind’s greed and desire for more materialistic things has created more genocide. Where the innocent casualties aren’t taken into consideration because they are just numbers just statistics in the game of war.

I believe that one day this war will end, and that the people of Iraq will have a democratically elected leader.

Although Iraq has been blown into a million pieces and the remains of the Babylon city have been destroyed, I believe that one day I will go back to see the beautiful date trees and find what remains of my family history.

One day I will return to the place that I call home, the place that I have never been; the place that I only dream exists. You may think that I am naïve for believing that this war will ever end, but this is what I believe. 