Not In My Name? How About in Rania's?

This is an open letter to anyone who marched against war on Feb 15, 2003. As someone who marched against apartheid in South Africa, protested the Tiananmen Massacre and afterward the Bush I administration's coddling of the Chinese dictatorship, I would like to know what it is like to support a regime with arguably the worst human rights record in the world. Here's what Amnesty International says about the regime you supported:

"The systematic torture and climate of fear that have prevailed in Iraq for so many years must be brought to an end," Amnesty International said. "The continuing scale and severity of human suffering must not be allowed to continue." Source.

So how does it feel to support such ruthlessness? Was it the guilt that made you hide the posters of Saddam and not mention him in any of your speeches that Saturday? Yet the guilt didn't stop you doing exactly what the "Butcher of Baghdad" wanted you to do. By the way, ever wonder who he butchered? Jews? No. Americans? Nope. Iraqis, Kurds and Iranians - Muslims and "oppressed" the whole lot. But I digress. Here's a little pat on the head from the Iraqi regime thanking you for your support:

Iraq's tightly controlled news media gave prominent coverage to anti-war demonstrations staged around the world on Saturday. Iraqi television showed footage of millions marching in the world's cities under the logo "International Day of Confronting the Aggression."

"The world said with one voice: 'No to aggression on Iraq,'" read a headline in the government daily Al-Jumhuriya. "The world rises against American aggression and the arrogance of naked force," read a front page headline in the army daily Al-Qadissiya.

"These demonstrations expressed in their spirit, meaning and slogans the decisive Iraqi victory and the defeat and isolation of America," Al-Jumhuriya said in a commentary. Source

It's easy to be anti-war in the United States and Europe right now. The threat Saddam poses to us is academic bordering on the abstract: some "possible" contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence, "unconfirmed" sightings of various al-Qaeda members, uncollaborated reports from defectors... An administration that you believe exaggerates and have never really forgiven for "stealing the election" in in 2000. Besides, Iraq is so far away and very few of us have been stung by the Iraqi madman directly. We have been taught to believe that war should be avoided, and it should be hard to reach the point where violence is called for.

Yet you have reached that point and are blind to it. Twelve years of sanctions and thirty years of suffering are enough. If you cannot support a war in your name, how about doing so in Rania's? (source)

Iraq and "War"*

Dear All,

I am writing this email after a lot of deliberation about whether I have the right to use my strange and unique position (within our group) to argue the case FOR an invasion in Iraq. But in the end I have decided that I have more to lose if I keep quiet.

Firstly, my parents, my family, are from Iraq. My parents fled from Iraq some 23 years ago leaving everything and everyone behind when at that point 17 of our relatives had been "disappeared" or imprisoned for no reason whatsoever. They sought refuge in Kuwait for 4 years, but once again were forced to flee with us (my brother and I) in tow when Saddam had the Kuwaitis deport the Iraqi men back to Iraq. On the border he had these returnees shot dead.

We were lucky; we made it safely to Britain. My father was lucky - his brother was caught trying to escape and tortured. So here I am, 19 years later, never having set foot in the country of my parents.

The anti-"war" feeling prevalent amongst people I speak to seems to me totally misjudged and misplaced. I have to be honest here and say that I feel it is based partly on a lot on misunderstanding of the situation in Iraq and partly on people's desire to seem "politically rebellious" against the big, bad Americans. And let me say, that I also agree the American government is indeed big and bad; I have no illusions about their true intentions behind an attack on Iraq.

More than you or I, the Iraqis know the ignorant and truly atrocious attitude of the American government towards most of the world's population. Iraqis felt the effect of this when America (and the rest of the West in fact) eagerly supported and supplied Saddam when he waged his war-of-attrition against Iran causing the death of 1 million Iraqis and Iranians and the disappearance of many more - there was no anti-war movement to help them.

They felt the effect of this attitude when America and the West ignored, supplied even, Saddam's use of biological weapons on the people of Halabja, killing 5000 people in one day, and causing the deformed births of babies in the area to this day.

Iraqis know well the untrustworthy nature of the Western governments when the coalition gave Saddam permission, a few days after the end of the Gulf War, to massacre the uprising peoples of Iraq when they had wrested control from him in most cities of Iraq.

The people of Iraq echo our discontentment with America and the West's policy in Iraq, for they know the realities of such a policy far better than any of us shall ever know.

I want to ask those who support the anti - "war" movement (apart from pacifists - that is a totally different situation) their motives and reasoning behind such support. You may feel that America is trying to blind you from seeing the truth about their real reasons for an invasion. I must argue that in fact, you are still blind to the bigger truths in Iraq. I must ask you to consider the following questions:

Saddam has murdered more than a million Iraqis over the past 30 years, are you willing to allow him to kill another million Iraqis?

Out of a population of 20 million, 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their country during Saddam's reign. Are you willing to ignore the real and present danger that caused so many people to leave their homes and families?

Saddam rules Iraq using fear - he regularly imprisons, executes and tortures the mass population for no reason whatsoever - this may be hard to believe and you may not even appreciate the extent of such barbaric acts, but believe me you will be hard pressed to find a family in Iraq who have not had a son/father/brother killed, imprisoned, tortured and/or "disappeared" due to Saddam's regime. What has been stopping you from taking to the streets to protest against such blatant crimes against humanity in the past?

Saddam gassed thousands of political prisoners in one of his campaigns to "cleanse" prisons - why are you not protesting against this barbaric act?
An example of the dictator's policy you are trying to save - Saddam has made a law to give excuse to any man to rape a female relative and then murder her in the name of adultery. Do you still want to march to keep him in power?

I remember when I was around 8 I went along with my father to a demonstration against the French embassy when the French were selling Saddam weapons. I know of the numerous occasions my father and many, many others haves attended various meetings, protests and exhibitions that call for the end of Saddam's reign. I have attended the permanent rally against Saddam that has been held every Saturday in Trafalgar Square for the past 5 years. The Iraqi people have been protesting for YEARS against the war - the war that Saddam has waged against them. Where have you been?

Why is it now that you deem it appropriate to voice your disillusions with America's policy in Iraq, when it is actually right now that the Iraqi people are being given real hope, however slight and precarious, that they can live in an Iraq that is free of the horrors partly described in this email?

Whatever America's real intentions behind an attack, the reality on the ground is that many Iraqis, inside and outside Iraq support invasive action, because they are the ones who have to live with the realities of continuing as things are while people in the West wring their hands over the rights and wrongs of dropping bombs on Iraq, when in fact the US & the UK have been continuously dropping bombs on Iraq for the past 12 years.

Of course it would be ideal if an invasion could be undertaken, not by the Americans, but by, say, the Nelson Mandela International Peace Force. That's not on offer. The Iraqi people cannot wait until such a force materialises; they have been forced to take what they're given. That such a force does not exist - cannot exist - in today's world is a failing of the very people who do not want America to invade Iraq, yet are willing to let thousands of Iraqis to die in order to gain the higher moral ground. Do not continue to punish the Iraqi people because you are "unhappy" with the amount of power the world is at fault for allowing America to wield. Do not use the Iraqi people as a pawn in your game for moral superiority - one loses that right when one allows a monster like Saddam to rule for 30 years without so much as protesting against his rule.

Some will accuse me of being a pessimist for accepting that the only way to get rid of Saddam is through force. I beg to differ; I believe I have boundless optimism for the FUTURE of Iraq, where Iraqis are able to rebuild their shattered country, where Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists, communists - all peoples of any and all backgrounds are able to live in peace and safety and without fear of persecution. I beg you to imagine such an Iraq, such a democracy in the Middle East, and ask where in that do you see pessimism? Such an Iraq is what is being envisaged and sought by many millions of Iraqis; such an Iraq is where I hope I will be able to take my children.

If you want to make your disillusions heard then do speak out, put pressure on Blair, Bush & Co to keep to their promises of restoring democracy to Iraq. Make sure they do put back in financial aid what they have taken over the years, and make sure that they don't betray the Iraqis again. March for democracy in Iraq. If you say that we can't trust the Americans then make sure that you are a part of ensuring they do fulfil their promises to the Iraqis.

So I conclude by asking you to consider your REASONS for supporting the anti-"war" movement, and if you are going, the anti-"war" demo. If you still feel that what I have said does not sway you from this stance, then I can do no more.

In some ways I do admire the movement because it proves what people can achieve when they come together and speak out. Unfortunately for Iraq nobody spoke out earlier.

Please feel free to email me with your counter-arguments, comments, thoughts etc.

Rania Kashi

(* I use apostrophes with "war" because in truth it will be no war, but an invasion. A war presumes relatively equal forces battling against each, with resistance on both sides. A US-led force will encounter NO resistance from the Iraqi people or the army.)

Meanwhile, Saddam continues his search for weapons that kill massive amounts of civilians, requesting information about anthrax from the Swedish foreign ministry in 2002 (source). This on top of his missing kilotons of chemical, biological and radiological stores. He continues funding attacks that blow up children in pizza shops and old ladies sitting down to dinner with his $25,000 "bounty" to the families of homicide bombers in Israel. Twelve years of sanctions have not stopped Saddam's quest for ways of killing millions of civilians; they have simply impoverished the Iraqi people. He has forgone over $100 billion in lost oil revenue, do you think he will give up his weapons when he has countries like France and Germany backing him as well as the support of men and women like you?

As someone who believes the Palestinians should get their own homeland, that China should leave Tibet, Mugabe is executing a racist war in Zimbabwe, and that the Myanmar junta needs to restore democracy - you have lost all credibility. Those of us who believe in human rights will never forgive you for your support of Saddam.

Every Israeli civilian torn apart by a Hamas nail-bomb, every Iraqi child tortured to death in front of her father for his "waivering support" of the regime, every woman raped and murdered by Saddam's son Oday, every American soldier whose lungs are scarred with mustard gas for dropping his gas mask during a chemical weapons attack- their suffering and deaths deserves to weigh on your conscience.

Think about that as you and your friends congratulate yourselves for "turning the tide" against the war.