Dr. Mohammad T. Al-Rasheed

Is Saddam Hussein an issue to anyone anymore? Past dictators rarely come back unless they are aided by the CIA, as happened with the Shah of Iran back in the fifties. We can be sure there is no possibility of a repeat this time around. So why is the US and the occupation force bent on keeping Saddam in the picture as the bombs become more frequent and the casualties mount? It simply does not add up. What if they kill Saddam and the bombs continue and the casualties increase? What then? Don’t these people ever run out of spin? Better still, don’t they learn from the immediate past?

When Castor and Pollux (Saddam’s sons) were killed, the US tried to make of it more than was needed. They were two criminals who met their just fate. Instead, we were told that the three-headed serpent lost two thirds of its power and was greatly weakened. Well, if that was true, events are not holding up to the spin. We don’t hear about the sons anymore. Similarly with Saddam; the day he is killed will be the last day he is mentioned since, to all intents and purposes, the mayhem will continue.

There is a simple solution to this problem: Tell the truth. Sure enough, hunt Saddam for the sake of justice and the comfort of his victims, but face the reality that is so obvious to anyone who cares to see: Iraqis would have fought on the battlefield for Saddam had they cared a toss for him. Instead, they practically handed him and the country over. So what makes these people blow themselves up today? Saddam? If your answer is yes, you really should watch football and leave politics alone.

There is no question that Iraq is being infiltrated by some tough terrorist cookies. The trail of evidence leads that way. They are preying on the national and religious feelings of some local fanatics in Iraq. This is the direct result of American unilateralism, and the continued resistance of the US government to bring the UN into the equation. In spite of the new currency and the electricity that comes in power surges like American raids, the majority of Iraqis are beginning to see the Americans not as liberators but as occupiers.

You bring in the Turks, who are the most vicious of past occupiers of Iraq, and you compound the problem. Is it too humiliating for this American administration to listen to those who want to help? Any novice Arabist, let alone an Arab, would tell you that Arabs do not die for other men. They die for a tribe, a country, a religion, but never for a man no matter who or what he is. So drop the Saddam chorus and face reality in order to stop fresh blood from running unchecked.

— comments@d-corner.com

— Arab News Opinion 16 October 2003