A Family in Baghdad

TUESDAY, JANUAERY 2nd, 2007
Peace be upon you…
These days I'm in Cairo on a short visit, I came to spend the feast holiday with my son Majid, as he is living and studying there… the weather is warm, I ran from the cold weather and snow in Amman. People here are so peaceful and pleasant in an unbelievable way, they remind me of the Iraqis and their goodness and respect to the guests coming to visit Iraq, some time ago, of course, and not now, where there is a hell raging, killing both the Iraqis and their guests alike.
****************************
Any guest coming to Iraq now, who is an Arab, other than the Iraqis, I mean; whether Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Saudi, Sudanese, whoever, then he is an unwanted terrorist in the post-occupation Iraq… Arabism became a hateful word, which some want to omit from the Iraqi's culture and memory. Why? Perhaps because of the entry of some tens of thousands of people who were in Iran, who hated the Arabs because of Saddam Hussein's violent and aggressive positions against them, during his war on Iran, when a lot of Iraqi families who had Iranian origins were deported to Iran, (some of my mother's relatives were part of that displacing), and also Saddam's oppression of the Kurd's and his cruelty in dealing with them, made some of them hate the Arabs and the word Arabism… It is said that those are all Iranians and Kurds who came back now to revenge, as now they became in the decision- making position, and the power is in their hands….. It is evident that what is taking place in Iraq is a blind violence and grudge, which made a lot of people lose the insight and reason, for hatred is an evil that blinds the sight and the insight, I mean- blinds the eyes and the hearts, God forbid, so that a person afflicted with it can no longer hear or see… but thinks only of how to revenge, shed blood, and quench his thirst… he would be under the spell of a raging beastly state. And we all saw what happened to Iraq, since 2003 till now, because the main generator for those who entered Iraq after its occupation, was revenge… that's why everything was burned and destroyed… humans, trees, cities, streets, and buildings… nothing was spared from the hatred of these new comers…..Who opened the door for them?Answer: the American administration…And why? Answer: there were some hidden accounts between them and Saddam Hussein.
Now, true stories and tales are beginning to spread in the media, after Saddam was executed… and little by little the illusionary tales that were marketed before the war will abate, stories like: weapons of mass destruction, mass graves, the fascistic regime, the tyrant, etc….. And just like the days gave Saddam Hussein the chance to oppress these Iranians and Kurds, now the days gave them the chance to oppress the others, and so on; a whirlpool of stupidity, ignorance, and a blind hate that will keep on turning and eating what's around it until it stops…
The one who survives it is whoever was careful, and drew himself away from this hideous circle that doesn't pity anyone…
**********************************
Now, some American documentary films are beginning to spread, about the beginnings of the association of Saddam Hussein with the American CIA after 1959. Well, thank you, I am very grateful, for this explains a lot of the mysterious questions that used to puzzle me, and for which I find no answers when I read the modern history of Iraq. I read in the history books that there was a long struggle, revolutionaries, uprisings, martyrs, and sacrifices, made by the Iraqi people for long years, more than forty years, until they were liberated from the British occupation (1914-1958). Then came an Iraqi national military government, because some officers of the Iraqi Army led a coup against the Royal Family, a Family which was supported by Britain… and Abdul-Kareem Kaseem, may God have mercy on his soul, became the Prime minister and the leader of the Army… When Abdul-Kareem Kaseem was ruling, I was a little child, I didn't exactly witness that history, but have just some faded memories… but I do remember the attempt to assassinate him; his pictures on TV, on a hospital bed with his arm bandaged, and I remember seeing his yellow car on display to the public in the Ministry of Defense near our house then, with the bullet marks after the assassination attempt… It was Saddam Hussein who tried to assassinate him. He was 22 years old then, a young man. How did he become mixed up in a big operation like this? I never heard that name before then…. And I remember that after a few more years, there was a coup against Abdul-Kareem Kaseem, and he was killed. They showed his picture on TV. I was sad and stunned, still a child; how could this have happened? The man was filling the screens, people applauded him, and his pictures were in all the streets of Baghdad? How could they put him now, dead, on a chair, with a stupid soldier holding back his head, and spitting on him, even though dead? How can things turn like this so suddenly? My mind, as a child, couldn't comprehend how things can collapse in such away, and a human would turn from the great man they used to cheer into a petty miserable they spit upon? Is life a silly adventure? You live like a hero, and then they would turn against you, crucify you, and spit on you?
Two days ago, the scene was repeated…Saddam Hussein was the great leader in Iraq, his pictures and words filled the streets, newspapers, and TVs, and all stood in awe and trembled before him… Then, two days ago, they put him on a stand in a dark room and executed him, surrounded by some scum who cursed, called names, and spit their poisons like snakes, who didn't even respect the moment of death. They didn't give him any privacy in that moment; they didn't wait for the sentence to be carried out to start cursing, but stood before him and started cursing, while he was under the hangman's rope… In all my life I haven't seen, or imagined, that such miserable creatures like these lived on the face of earth, and the disaster is, they live on the land of Iraq now…. The justice of heaven is above all… yes, I know that…But I keep wondering: Did God the Mighty want to teach Saddam Hussein alone a lesson? Or is it a lesson for everyone?
********************************
Now, things became clearer, when the American intelligence confessed that Saddam Hussein was their man in Iraq after that unsuccessful assassination attempt…. So, we re-read the history in Iraq… Britain went out of Iraq in 1958 after the military coup, and Abdul-Kareem Kaseem came as a Prime minister, and being a military man, he was also the Minister of Defense, too, as I think… He still has a good reputation among the Iraqis… when he died, they found but a few dirhams in his pockets… and so it was with his bank account… the Iraqis still use him as an example of good nature with people and integrity… I didn't understand what happened at that time; why did Iraq remain in a state of unrest and blazing after the withdrawal of Britain? There were some problems from here and there… The Kurds ignited a revolt against the government (and now I learned that Iran – Al-Shah and America used to finance the Kurdish revolts), the Communists pressured Abdul-Kareem Kaseem to pull him onto their side, the Ba'athists and the Nationalists revolted, and did some military movements in the army… So, it seems from this re-reading we deduce that Britain went out of the door, and America entered from the window… Meaning- that everything that was going on in Iraq was not by the plotting of the poor Iraqi people…. And that that restless situation was not because the Iraqis, as some might think, are hypocrite people with wavering temperaments… There was America in the situation, which means Iraq will not see stability and settlement, and that is indeed a history we've been through, moving from one stage to another, and things kept moving in a bad direction, on to worst, until Saddam came to rule, and the Ba'ath Party held the power… Then, the government fell in 2003, and the occupation began.
*****************
Abdul-Kareem Kaseem was killed in a traitorous way, he was shot in the building of the TV and Radio Broadcasting Station, somehow, and they took that film about him on the chair, dead, and the stupid soldier spitting on his face… It was a painful slap for all the Iraqis who loved him…But no one understood what happened?Why was Abdul-Kareem Kaseem killed?In the history books at school, we read that he diverted the path of the revolution and became a tyrant… but now I see he wasn't a tyrant, but rather wanted to hold the stick in the middle, he wanted to equalize between the Communists and the Nationalists, but didn't succeed… so he fell a victim to the conflict between the two sides… Then, Abdul-Salam Areef came, and the country remained unsettled… there were some who kept digging, evoking unrest… Then something called "the nationalist guards" appeared on the street; a Ba'athi militia carrying arms, young men, I used to see them on my way home from the primary school, and die of fear… I used to listen to stories from the neighbors who used to visit my mother, stories about the nationalist guards and how they kidnapped the boys and girls of families, especially the communist families, then torture and kill them, and ravish the girls… my aunt told my mother: the nationalist guards knocked on the door of one family, a communist family, and demanded they hand over their daughter, a university student, but the father refused to hand the girl, and after an argument at the door, he went inside and shot his daughter, then told them: come and take her body, for we cannot give you our girl alive, lest you would stain the reputation of the girl and her family… Thus were the horror stories which the Iraqis lived through, on the days at the beginning of the formation of Al-Ba'ath Party, whose gravest enemy was the Communist Party. And now I begin to understand that America supported these militias and Al-Ba'ath Party to eliminate the Communist Party in Iraq… Oh God, and now America decided to unbind Al-Ba'ath Party, to make it a banned Party from existence after the occupation of Iraq, because it is a fascistic, bloody Party, how nice… I mean; since those days we were burned by the fires of these evil actions because America was behind them, just like what is happening now while the militias are raking havoc in Iraq, then they try to say- it is a purely Iraqi business? Nothing in our countries is a purely internal business… as long as the fingers of imperialism are tampering with our lives, secretly and in public…
*************************
The Ba'athies clashed with Abdul-Salam Areef, there was a conflict for power, and somehow, the Iraqi Army confronted the Nationalistic Guard militias, and the Army was victorious… But after a short while, Abdul-Salam Areef died in a plane crash… all the Iraqis suspected this of being a planned operation… Then, his brother, Abdul-Rehman Areef, came to power. These are events I saw with my eyes when I was young, events growing bigger year after year, I saw faces coming forward, assuming power and decision, control the TV screens, then disappear, only for other faces to come along, who would curse the ones before them, and so on… as if it was a meaningless roundabout… There was a main generator behind all this, something we didn't see, we couldn't understand ............But now, after the passage of tens of years… I understood everything, and put the pieces of the puzzle together… America was behind everything, because she received Iraq as an inherited item from the position of the British imperialism, meaning- received the Iraqi file, and put her fingers into everything. And we, the poor Iraqi people, were the last to know… My father, God bless his soul, and all the men of his generation, died while still baffled about the matter; who was behind the disasters in Iraq? And so it was with my mother, God bless her soul, who died with a question that kept tormenting her: why does these disasters and wars occur always in Iraq, while it is the land of wealth and welfare? Now I, their daughter, wish they would come back so I can tell them that America is the reason behind the disasters in Iraq, since 1958 until now… and before her, there was Britain…. Iraq never felt taste of stability since the beginning of the twentieth century, till now…. Iraq, the land of fortunes, water, agriculture, oil, civilization, and intelligent people… it is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, one of the most civilized and advanced… But look what we reaped?Nothing but wars, destruction, devastation, and leaders who come to fulfill the interests of Britain and America, even if that meant destroying Iraq and its people… Isn't that the truth?
**********************
In 1968, a coup took place in Iraq, removing Abdul-Rehman Areef from ruling, and the Ba'athies took the power… they started a campaign to eliminate the non-Ba'athies… it wasn't a naïve story of Sunnies and Shia'ats like what they are marketing now… the story was- are you with us or against us? Do you support us or reject us?They started getting rid of all communists, either by killing, or by threatening so they would sign papers renouncing the Communist Party, and some of the Party leaders left Iraq to Europe, especially Sweden, (and now they came back with the occupation, for they have no conflict with the American imperialism, they are rather grateful to it for toppling Saddam and brining them back). Aren't those stupid fools? America used Saddam to kill the Communists and throw them out of Iraq, then to kill and throw out the Iraqis with Iranian origins out of Iraq, during the war with Iran, then to kill the Kurds during that same war, because they collaborated with Iran during the war. Then to kill the Shia'ats of Al-Da'awa Party and other religious Shia'at leaderships, because they collaborated with Iran, or sided politically with it ......... The existence of Iran, a Shia'at state having a political conflict with Iraq, caused the tension between the Shia'ats in Iraq and the Iraqi government, not because the government was Sunnie… The government was secular, for it also chased the Wahabi Sunnies and arrested them… Everything was for political reasons that had nothing to do with Sunnies, Shia'ats, Arabs, or Kurds… America provided Saddam with the chemical weapons and cluster bombs, and told him to – do every possible thing to break Iran and achieve victory against our enemy… and he used these weapons to kill the Kurds and the Shia'ats; rebels against the Iraqi government, and those with some ties with Iran .......... Now, positions have changed, America came to remove Saddam and occupy Iraq herself, and with her came the revengeful from Iran, Sweden, London, Washington, and elsewhere, those whom Saddam kicked out according to instructions from America … Didn't they think for one moment: who is our real enemy? Saddam or America? Saddam was nothing but a tool to destroy the others…But America changed the tool now, deciding to use new names, and new faces, meaning- new fools… Will they open their eyes and learn a lesson from what happened to Saddam, the once- favorite man of America? It seems that the answer is: No, for they are deaf, mute and blind, and do not comprehend… Surly, if they comprehend, if they had an iota of brains, they would have paid attention, and understood the lesson… But it seems that this game needs always the presence of a main, strong and vicious player; with secondary players who are a mixture of fools, stupids, rabble, savages, retards, and thieves…. And all these conditions were joined and fulfilled… And so, there was the war on Iraq in 2003…
**********************************
The Ba'athists came to assume power in 1968, all their political opponents were eliminated from the scene, the Iraqi oil was nationalized, and an agreement was reached for a self-ruling state with the Kurds. Now, from re-reading the history, I discovered that Iraq made an agreement with Iran- Al-Shah and America to stop financing the Kurdish fighters with money and weapons to stop their rebellion. The agreement was made; the Kurdish rebellion was stopped, or rather, crushed. Meaning; the Kurdish card was used as a point of political pressure in the hands of America, against the Iraqi governments, and Iran used to help America during the time of AL-Shah. And the oil card? Was it taken from the British companies to be given to the American companies? Then, there is the war against Iran after the fall of the Shah regime and the arrival of new Islamic leaders, who publicly opposed America… Why did Saddam Hussein agree to be a tool in the hands of America, fulfilling her wishes? Perhaps he had his personal dreams to excel, to control the region, and become the star of the show. But his dreams went with the wind at the end of the Iranian war, when he found his hands touching the ground, like the Iraqi parable says, meaning- he was broke… and then he discovered that he was nothing but a deceived fool; the Iraqi economy was destroyed, America and the Gulf States abandoned him, turned their backs to him, and denied their promises… So, he got angry, and decided to occupy Kuwait in punishment for their betrayal to him… and there was the 1990 war. America came on and announced herself the guardian of the oppressed, defended Kuwait, and destroyed Iraq… A shameful, disgraceful history, full of villainy and meanness. That is the history of the American governments with the Iraqi people. And now, in the latest war, they came to liberate Iraq from Saddam, the savage? How nice!...
Would a thief change if he was dressed as a nobleman? I discovered that the thief, even if he dresses as a nobleman, will keep on behaving as he usually does; he will remain lowly in manners and behaviors, and this is what the American occupation did in Iraq; it covered itself in noble stories like freedom, democracy, and human rights, but actually, acted in the manner of vile thieves, on the ground of reality….
*********************
Do you know what is the sad thing in all this?The sad thing, in my opinion, is: how all these people on this earth are deceived, and lied to? We believe the official stories told by governments, and shake our heads… then, years pass, and we discover we were nothing but deceived fools… For the hero shown in the media is actually just a villainous thief… and the criminal whom they put under the lights and deform his reputation, is perhaps an honest, nationalist patriot… And so on… a continuous circle of lies, reaching to this very day… But the Iraq war, and oh, how painful the Iraq war was, has changed things and things… It has turned some chairs upside down, exposed old and recent conspiracies, and showed on the surface all the scandals that has been hidden for tens of years… But it opened our eyes, and taught us many things we used to be ignorant about… For me; it taught me how to be more truthful, more clear, and courageous… taught me to have more faith in the Creator, who doesn't change, and his rules doesn't change either… what is right is right to Him, what is just is just, and lies and betrayal are hateful to Him until the day of doom… Whoever believes in another but God, or depends upon another, will not succeed… Perhaps one of the deadliest mistakes of poor Saddam Hussein was that he believed in himself, and relied upon America, and that was a reason for his defeat… We ask God to forgive him, to have mercy upon him, for God is the most Forgiving and the most Merciful… I learned never to harbor hatred or carry a grudge against someone. Hatred is a disease that befalls fools; this is my belief, and what I see in reality…. I learned to forgive, and pardon…For we are all humans, prone to be mistaken, and only God is the Forgiving Merciful…. The stories of everyday life accumulate, turning into history, then to lessons from which generations learn… Blessed is that who opens his mind and eyes, who learns, understands, and distinguishes right from wrong. Whoever believes in God, whoever depends upon God in a good way, on Him alone, without no other, shall never fail … always and ever .............And may peace be upon you, with the mercy of God, and His blessings…