In one online resource, a diversity of information on Iraqi related subject matter have been researched, documented, and indexed via specific classification criteria.

To assist the user, the indexed database has been situated in the left frame to facilitate easy access and utilization of the data. As a further guide, a top frame is provided with a history of the last 20 document additions, an Audio/Video and photograph index, as well as links to the guestbook and external link pages.

For further assistance please refer to the HELP section.

Comments by the IRIS author..

In developing this site, I originally toyed with the idea of devoting it entirely to the current Iraqi crisis, but Iraq is much more than that. The region of Iraq has been in existence for 5,000 years and the current autocracies are just a blink of Iraqi history. You will therefore find various Iraqi subjects (spanning from Sumer to Saddam) addressed throughout IRIS.

I have seen and read much about the devastating effects of the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars, the cruelty of the Iraqi regime, and of the misery of the sanctioned Iraqi people. I grew up far from that, in the safety and security of the United States. This position of comfort and safety coexisted with the feeling of guilt and frustration in being powerless to contribute to the struggle of the Iraqi people.

Aside from providing as complete an online Iraqi source as possible, IRIS is also intended to raise awareness about the oppression of the Iraqi people, as well as clarify the distorted image that the media portrays about Iraq. In today's society, the news media is among the most powerful and unaccountable forces. The images they create become reality, and in few places has this been so damaging as in coverage of Iraq and the Middle East in general. Iraqis are portrayed as instinctually hostile to the "West" without any effort to uncover how their views have been shaped by the events in their daily lives and their experiences with the dictator who possess power over them. The television image and newspaper photo's most often seen of Iraqis is of an angry mob burning a U.S. or Israeli flag. The effects of the sanctions are almost never mentioned.

The Council on American Islamic Relations, Iraq Action Coalition, Doctors without borders, Voices in the Wilderness and many others show continuously that activism for peace with justice for Iraq is alive and well. It is made up not of heroes, slogans or leaders whose faces you will see on CNN but of determined individuals who choose to bear witness to the injustice they see around them.

Through the development of this site, I intend to raise awareness about the oppression of the Iraqi people, clarify the convoluted and euphemistic explanations of the current crisis, as well as provide a rich cultural and historical collection of resources on a vast number of Iraqi topics.