Written two weeks ago, I couldnt cope with the pace of the war to update this piece. Just a few hours ago, I heard that Saddam might have fled Iraq. That news disappointed me: I wished, and still wish, he would be caught and given a prisoner number tag and be brought to justice. That would be a good lesson for the remaining dictators but then, I bet many would-be-Saddam dictators have not slept a sound night since chasing Saddam started; now they are nervous. That is the fate of dictators wherever they are: history never lied about the guaranteed conclusion. As for those who believe the Arabic saying, Assekut Alaamet Arreda, that silence is a sign of approval, TV screens brought us pictures from Iraq that prove otherwise: silence was a sign of fear. The silent just waited patiently for their day and when it came, they celebrated. The PFDJ tried hard to lure the USA into using Eritrea as a launching pad for the USA attack on IRAQ. In what became a classical funny anecdote, the dictators ambassador in the USA, told the world that Eritrean mountains are similar to those of Afghanistan. It was a yearning for legitimacy and efforts to cover-up the regimes brutality. Assab remained PFDJs toy town: a reception port for Gaddafi, the dictator extraordinaire. Then we saw confused PFDJ operatives in the USA participating in the No War On Iraq rallies while their government was going nuts trying to secure an American base in Eritrea for the war in Iraq! Ironically, the PFDJ has endorsed the full consensus African stand passed by the OAU supporting Frances stand! Go figure were, if they ever had a stand!
It is the character of the PFDJ. It is confused and it never forgets its mission in life: to confuse the world. But regardless of that, every living person has a view on the Iraq issue; I have mine. I am happy for the sigh of relief the Iraqis are enjoying now.
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Matthew 2652 ***image1:center***
If Jesus made his comments today, he would say, All those who take up dictatorship, shall perish by the dictates of the more powerful. Saddam not only lived by the sword, he signed mortality by building the biggest arch made of twin sword straddling a major avenue in Baghdad. A mould of his fist was used to curve the huge fists holding the two swords- they were literally on Saddams grip. This war is a just war. There are wars waged to end other wars. There are wars waged in resistance. There are wars that have to be fought; any war against a dictatorship is a just war. That is why Eritreans fought against Haile Sellasie and Dergue. It was not an unjust war; it was a popular war to regain the nations dignity. Unfortunately, the liberators turned into authoritarians and worse oppressors.
Never mind the irony and the theatrics of the Eritrean dictator siding with the USA to fight against the Iraqi dictator. Never mind the American liberator allowing a brutal dictator to be on the list when the task of overthrowing the Iraqi dictator begun. Never mind that a third of what is called the coalition of the willing is militarily insignificant and the other third is militarily and politically irrelevant. Never mind that some the leaders within the coalition are worse than Saddam -- what are they doing there? Now you know the biggest joke that went on humanity. Dont lose your sanity, just smile and pass it; and as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story.
A certain J. Kelso threw a tasteless joke in commenting on the odd presence of countries like Eritrea in the coalition. He was right in one count: what are we doing there apart from laughing at ourselves on top of making us the laughing stock for the rest of the world? J. Kalso is wrong on the second count: arrogant, childish attitude and lack of creativity for telling an overused restaurant-menu joke. (Mr. Kalso, there are many things you could write about Eritrea if you only were not lazy. Here is one: ask your government why it is perceived as tacitly endorsing a dictatorship?)
The PFDJ boss leaped to the anti-Saddam bandwagon in anticipation of an endorsement from the USA. In plain language, the Eritrean dictator is fighting for his life and here is where the philosophy gets in.
Commenting on my objection to violence in the Eritrean case, someone asked me, Doesnt it follow then that the Eritrean people have the right to fight in order to save their lives? He then added, dictators come by the sword and they should perish by the sword . or was Jesus wrong?
There are many who prayed to see the Iraqi dictator vanish into thin air. Now he is finished. I still pray that his life is saved so that he will be caught to account for the lives he wasted and the country he impoverished. I am certain that many people like me would like to see a domino effect taking place to rid the whole Middle East, and by extension rid the whole of Africa, of dictators and cleanse their stains from memory. I look forward to the day that the people in our region would free themselves of ruthless dictators. The end of the era of dictators would surely be heralded. Nothing can absolve a dictatorship but as shrewd as he is, our dictator has identified the opportunity and squeezed himself in the line of the Alliance of The Willing and earned himself the No. 30 tag. The Bush administration made a terrible spelling error!
Relatively speaking, it is better to be rich and have a dictator instead of being poor and be subjected to a dictatorship. A rich countrys dictator will in no time have his ego inflated and will unknowingly step on the toes of superpowers and threaten their vital interest. Eventually, the world takes care of him. Being poor and having a dictator is the worst of luck. Nobody notices; and the few who notice do not have enough incentive to do anything about it.
Iraq is a nation endowed with all the good things mother nature has to offer: ample water in forms of rivers, swamps, wetland and lakes, fertile lands, picturesque landscape, deserts and mountains, rich human resources, and ancient civilization, if not of any value, good for crazy tourists who travel thousands of miles to see rocks and ruins. Ruins are also good to brag about. This is Mesopotamia, Summaria and the land between two rivers; it is the Tigris and the Euphrates. This is the nation of Hammurabi. This is the land of Babylon and the legendary Hanging Gardens. This is a country that literally floats on black gold: oil. Such a nation should not go hungry and its children should always smile. Alas, Iraqis, though endowed with natures wealth and blessing, live in poverty just similar to those who live in countries deprived by nature. They died by the thousands to satiate the ego of their dictator. Their villages were gassed whenever the dictators mood was not all right. The ruling clique squanders the resources of the people and throws them into pitch darkness and utter destitution. Oppression is bad and Iraq is a perfect example.
During the Gulf war in 1991, the Iraqis were given wrong signals and they rebelled against Saddam. Soon, they discovered they were alone under the mercy of the tyrant: he killed them by the thousands. The proud Iraqi people have become timid people. The most dignified people have become dehumanized. The most humble people have become helpless. The Iraqi armed forces forgot to chant for Iraq and chanted for Saddam, ('Bddem Berruh Nefdik YaSaddam' and not YaIraq). Iraqis have the perfect recipe to revolt. Many times they did and they were left alone, short of victory, to face the oppression and reprisal machine of Saddam. They were brutally crushed. The war being waged now against Saddam would not be necessary had the people been empowered; and tackling the authoritarian regime of Saddam would have been cheaper.
Driving from Kuwait to Baghdad with a friend in 1990, we counted over 150 huge posters and murals of Saddam on the roadsides and villages before we arrived at AlNasseriyah. We gave up counting. Saddam Hussein is a perfect example of a megalomaniac. From the outside, the frenzy of people chanting Saddam, his posters, statues and the crowd he pulled wherever he went gives an impression that he was a popular leader revered by his people. Looking from the inside, it was totally different. Few days in Iraq and one would understand the fear that Saddam has instilled in the minds of his people. I have witnessed people who were terrified to see him on TV let alone be caught doing something against him. The dark cloud is over and Iraqis should rejoice.
War is despised because of the sufferings, destruction and loss of human life it causes; but if lives cannot be spared in a "No-war" situation, as was the case with the Iraqi people, there is no alternative to declaring a war to end an undeclared war. Any war waged to rid countries of dictatorships and free victimized people is a just war. Regrettably, civilian lives are always risked in any war. That is the sad part.
The silence of the world to dictatorships is a costly negligence. The world looks the other way when dictatorships build their thrones on the bones of their helpless citizens. Once the monster grows big, fighting it becomes a costly undertaking and a difficult political decision: dictators should be nipped in the bud. It is safe, it is cheap and it is JUST. Therefore, empowering the people to fight their own baby-monsters before it is too late is a policy all democracies should peruse: why would the world have to go through Operation Free Eritrea or Operation Free Pakistan a few years from now?
For those who entertain the propaganda spin that attacking Iraq is attacking Islam, I say: this is an extremist Arab spin and Saddam Hussein never represented Islam and never would. Moslems do not have a leader they collectively elected to represent them! Saddam was not even elected by the twenty-something million Iraqis let alone by the one billion Moslems! Saddam killed a thousand times more Iraqis, Moslems and Christians alike, than any number of Iraqis who will likely be killed in this war that is being waged to get rid of him. It is sad that deranged killers like Bin Laden and Saddam tickle the religious sentiments of Moslems whenever they wage a dirty war; they claim to be fighting on behalf of Moslems -- who gave them that right?
I dont believe Moslems have reached such a degraded stage to be represented by killers and brain-damaged demagogues and megalomaniacs! It is about time that the vocal Moslems helped in cleaning their own houses to embrace modernity. It is about time that the few influential Moslems freed themselves of the victim mentality to face and embrace the world of competition and democracy. It is about time that those few Moslems freed themselves from the mental siege built around them by individuals who are bent on telling everyone how they should live their lives. It is about time that the flow of ignorant fetwas stopped. It is about time that the militants understood that life is not about eternal engagement in wars.
Eritrea has the unlucky fortune of inheriting the corrupt culture of the Middle East politics. As if that is not enough, it also has the unlucky fortune of inheriting the ignorant political culture of Africa. We have a real challenge to face. We have to ask: When will our region get out of the Middle Ages and fly to the 21-century? Why does our region perpetually fail to solve its own problems and it takes others to come and solve it for us? Why are we plagued by rampant ignorance, disease and poverty? And why is it that such failures, in a crooked logic, considered a sign of success?
As Eritreans, we have an interest in the Iraqi issue: one dictator in any part of the world is one dictator too many. I stand in solidarity with the oppressed Iraqis in their fight against dictatorship; the people of Iraq have always stood with Eritrea. The Eritreans are natural allies of the Iraqis in the war against dictatorship; the Eritrean dictator is the natural ally of Saddam. He may hoodwink others but he will not hoodwink the oppressed. I stand in solidarity with the oppressed Iraqis and I wish them a free country and a dignified life with no fear. My good wishes are the least I can offer in expressing my solidarity with the Iraqis in this hard of times. My heart bleeds for the innocent that are being wasted because of the confrontation caused by a dictator who didnt even have a grain of decency to abdicate in order to save lives. The laws of Hammurabi are alive. Around 1700 BC, Hammurabi the famous legislator promulgated his an eye for an eye' law in Babylon, Iraq. Hammurabis set of laws was based on restorative principles of justice. I believe it is time that justice is restored in Iraq and beyond.
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