From Baghdad...

I write my column to you today from Baghdad celebrating with them an event that marks Iraq’s victories on ISIS and achieving their unity.

The past two days have been a shocking experience to me. I fell in love with Baghdad, this Arab capital that has been in our hearts and veins. To be invited to celebrate defeating ISIS that killed more than 50 journalists was an honour that I cherish as a journalist myself. At the end their blood didn’t go in vain and they did defeat ISIS. By defeating ISIS once again Iraq sends a message to the world that it still exists and is capable of fighting terrorism. ISIS that now needs to be completely destroyed all around the world. Iraqis did it and once again told the world who the Iraqi citizen truly is..a hero..a fighter.

But as much as I’ve seen what I fell in love with, I also saw what broke my heart over a country that was once protective armour for the Arab world. This sad side is what I’ll leave for a column I will write when I come back home.

For the time being what we need to focus on and celebrate is the fact that Iraq ended ISIS once and for all on its own land. You look around you and all you see is beauty. I sit at the event now and listen to their national anthem My Homeland.

My homeland

Glory and beauty, sublimity and splendour

Are in your hills,

Life and deliverance, pleasure and hope

Are in your air,

Will I see you?

Safely comforted and victoriously honoured

Will I see you in your eminence?

Reaching to the stars?

The youth will not tire, ‘till your independence,or they die,

We will drink from death, and will not be to our enemies like slaves,

We do not want, we do not want eternal humiliation, nor a miserable life

But we will bring back

Our storied glory

My homeland

The sword and the pen, not the talk nor the quarrel

Are our symbols

Our glory and our covenant, and a faithful duty

Moves us

Our glory,

Is an honourable cause, and a waving flag

And you always be victorious over your enemies

I write to you today’s column from the land where it’s former leader Saddam Hussein built a nation that once had the strongest Arab army and where it’s leader also made his biggest mistake when invaded Kuwait.

Wars, one after another, deaths, sectarianism that led to killing each other, political and economic  interest that tore it apart.

Iraq went through all that, yet it is standing on its feet..And their national anthem tells their story.

As I earlier mentioned next week’s column when I’m back home, there is another side to the story I’ll share with my readers. But for now bravo Iraq and we all as Arabs hope you stand on your feet and preserve, maybe even bring back your purely Arab identity.