Who Are the Iraqis?

By Lorena Lara

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, batteries (electric cells) and wheel-transport.

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 formed the first army in the human history.

11. They were the first people to build cities and live in them.

12. For thousands of years, they wrote the greatest poetry, history and "sagas" in the world.

13. Because they were great horse breeders, they invented the cavalry in war.

14. Abraham, the grand father of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, was from Iraq.

15. 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.

16. Beginning around 800 A.D., the Iraqis founded universities that imported teachers from throughout the civilized world to teach medicine, mathematics, philosophy, theology, literature and poetry.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Iraq, is the second largest reserve of oil. (Some say it is the first after a 12-year sanctions which impeded its oil outflow.)

20. Iraq, has the biggest soft water/population ratio in the world, seven rivers, seven rivers (main and secondary).

21. Iraqi wheat, rice, and meat are considered from the finest types in the world.

22. Before 1980, Iraq has the largest number of date palm trees In the world.

23. Iraqis, once considered as the Germans of Arabs with highest percent of highly educated people.

24. Iraq, is one of the world's richest territories in historical sites.

It is really sad to see a nation like this fall down. Some things are just not right in this world!