OT: An Iraqi's Case for Liberation

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/03 4:35:11 AM Eastern Standard Time,

butchbsi writes:

 

> He is a member of the advisory board of the Committee for the

> Liberation of Iraq and a founding member of the Iraqi National Congress.

>

>

 

Kind of makes you wonder what he is doing in Houston.

 

Jackie

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

A view from the other side. I don't know whether I believe him or not.

Is he embellishing? Maybe its not really 200,000 folks a year. Maybe

he's lieing .. maybe its only 100,000 .. or maybe only 50,000 .. or just

10,000. What the hell .. maybe its really ZERO and all the folks there

are having a picnic.

-----------------------

Feb. 1, 2003, 12:12 AM

 

Hear the Iraqi people's case for a liberating war.

By DR. MAHDI AL-BASSAM

 

AMID all the talk about war with Iraq and the opposition to it, one

voice has gone conspicuously unheard -- that of the Iraqi people. It is

bewildering to most Iraqis how so many can claim to speak for them, both

protagonists and opponents of the war. As an Iraqi-American and one who

has remained in touch with the Iraqi people, I feel it is time to say a

few words.

 

Firstly, let me address the anti-war group. Before 1990, the Iraqi

people had one of the highest standards of living of any Third World

country. They also had the highest number of college graduates of any

country in the Middle East and enjoyed one of the best health-care

systems in the Third World. This was because of an educational program

with state subsidies initiated during the monarchy, which ended in 1958.

Then, with two devastating external wars, countless internal purges,

policies of genocide in the north and ethnic cleansing in the south, use

of food as a political weapon and multiple other abuses by a regime that

cared little for them, they became what they are now.

 

They feel indignant that a university professor has to supplement his

income driving a taxi at night. When a father requires his own daughter

to help feed her siblings through prostitution, they are all humiliated.

When food rations are cut for the sake of weapons of mass destruction,

building palaces and monuments, and exorbitant spending by the party

elite, the Iraqi people are further devastated.

 

In a country where more than 200,000 persons annually disappear because

of institutionalized killings, liquidations, weapons of mass destruction

experiments on political prisoners, and out and out community

demolitions, a war that could bring hope for a better life is but a

small price to suffer. To many Iraqis, the calls against the war are

nothing but another collective letting down by the Arab, regional and

international community -- especially those enjoying democracy and

freedom of speech in the West. It is bigoted to assert that Iraqis

deserve no more than what they have, Saddam and his regime.

 

It is morally repugnant that people walk in marches across Western

cities calling, essentially, for the Iraqi people to be kept in their

collective jail with their tormentors. They remember how Saddam refused

to accept the oil-for-food program for almost six years after the end of

the Persian Gulf War. Those who have marched are either ignorant of the

facts and need to educate themselves, or sinister creatures no different

from Saddam and his institutionalized murderers, torturers and rapists.

They will be remembered as people who called for maintaining the status

quo for more than 15 million Iraqis under Saddam's rule.

 

To those who favor war, I observe: Iraqis see this war, if it occurs, as

a war of liberation. They can look a short distance into northern Iraq

and see how 13 percent of the oil-for-food money has converted 25

percent of Iraq's population into a well-fed, democratic and prosperous

people. They see the infant mortality rates lower than they had ever

been in the country, in its entire history, only a few miles to the

north. Most importantly, they hope and dream of a democratic society

where individual and group rights are sacred. They look for peace and

prosperity inside their borders [so that] they can rebuild their country

with the water, mineral, agricultural and professional wealth already

present.

 

If there is a plan for regime change in Iraq, it must be for democracy.

It must be for reconciliation. It must be for acknowledging the rights

of all religions, faiths, sects and ethnic groups. It must be for the

creation of a civil society. It must be for a unique federalism that

will accommodate all of Iraq's peoples.

 

If the plan falls short of these essential goals, then war will not be

of benefit to Iraqis. To be rid of WMDs, Iraqis must be freed from

despotism, fear and dictatorship. Solutions advocating letting Saddam

and his gang go into exile would further devastate the Iraqi people and

prevent them from achieving their goals. This in turn would generate

more trouble in the future, just as cutting half the cancer will not

cure the patient. In short it would be another betrayal by the

international community. It would also amount to a betrayal of the

people footing the bill for such a war, the American people.

 

It has become self-evident that the world and the Iraqi people cannot

live with Saddam and his regime. Nor can the world live with an

[appointed] replacement.

 

The democratization of Iraq will show the Middle East that the West

cares for it. The liberation of Iraq will have untold beneficial effects

that will dwarf the stated objective of removing weapons of mass

destruction. This is the only formula that will work for Iraq, the

region and the world.

 

 

Al-Bassam, a medical doctor, is an Iraqi-American who lives and works in

Houston. He is a member of the advisory board of the Committee for the

Liberation of Iraq and a founding member of the Iraqi National Congress.