August 17, 2006
Journalists and historians have been granted the most power on Earth: they can change things that have already
happened.
It is amazing how a couple of years can not only create a cataclysmic situation in Iraq, but how the history
of the country prior to March 2003 changes daily. Much of the change comes not from U.S. administration officials, but from
the so-called "progressive" press that opposes the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Awhile ago, I read an article about how Iraqi doctors are suffering because they have little technical literature
and what they have is often outdated. That I agreed with, but the following reasons were preposterous. The writer said that
the Iraqi medical system was in bad shape for 30 years and that Saddam Hussein would not allow doctors and healthcare professionals
to leave Iraq, under penalty of death. I have no idea where this assumption originated.
It is well known that under the Ba’athist regime, a priority was medical care. The government paid for
tens of thousands of healthcare people to go to foreign countries to study, primarily in the U.S. and U.K.
During the Ba’ath years, not only medical students studied abroad, but engineers and scientists as well.
When they came back to Iraq, they participated in the growth and development of the country that led it to be the most progressive
country in the Middle East.
However, we now have so-called journalists saying that Iraq was a huge prison that would not allow its people
out. When one reads such an article today, he/she can easily be persuaded that this was the case.
Recently, there has been much propaganda, many times from the left, that states the Iraqi education system
was held back under the Ba’ath regime. However, look at the statistics. In 1975, two years after the Ba’ath Party
came to power, the literacy rate in Iraq was 40%. On the eve of Desert Storm, it was 87%. These are not made-up figures. They
come from many apolitical sources. To me, that shows an overwhelming success.
All this revisionist history, again, much from the left, is nothing more than propaganda for the pro-war sector
of Western societies. The administrations need not supply their own propaganda when their adversaries do the dirty work for
them.
A few weeks ago, I received a message from a person who criticized my assessment of the Iraqi resistance.
She was a supporter of the resistance, but said I had it all wrong and that I was a Saddam Hussein dupe. According to her,
the resistance just came out of nowhere and represented the popular Iraqi mindset and the Ba’athists had nothing to
do with it. I did write back and mention the minor fact that the resistance is well-financed, well-armed and well-organized
and these elements could only be supplied by former Iraqi government people.
Her thought process is in line with the idyllic scenes the armchair left portrays. I am as far left as anybody,
but I try to bring reality into the picture. To her, the people miraculously rose up to defeat the invaders as well as the
tyrant Saddam. Hogwash.
A letter I received from a Palestinian reader prompted me to write today’s column. He had responded
to an article written by Jack Random in which the author called for the U.S. to leave Iraq. But, he also denigrated Saddam
Hussein. The Palestinian wrote to Random and said:
The "dictator" you talk about was right in each and every sense of the word. That "dictator" could have kept
the country that was looted intact, united and in the process of becoming a first rate country.
The Palestinian then told me:
There is a funny notion that each and every writer has to demean Saddam in order for him/her to have their
pieces published or read. Is it a taboo or a given norm that Saddam must by cursed in order for an intellectual to show his/her
credentials and "objectivity?"
This is an important point that must be discussed. Hundreds of articles have been written that tell of the
excellent education, healthcare and engineering programs in Iraq prior to U.S. involvement, yet have a disclaimer of "don’t
get me wrong, I’m not sticking up for Saddam," or, "I disagreed with the war, but at least Saddam is gone."
Anybody who writes in such a manner can not call him/herself a journalist. First of all, if he/she can not
write a meaningful article using words powerful enough to describe the subject without injecting a useless editorial phrase,
the piece loses credibility. Secondly, if a writer praises Iraq under Saddam yet says he/she does not want to give him credit,
illogic reigns. How did Iraq attain such a status without the influence of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party?
My Palestinian friend is correct in stating that there must be a disclaimer in an article about Saddam to
make the article palatable. By doing this, the writer is parroting the words of the U.S. administration.
I wonder how many people who write about Iraq, both for and against the invasion, have ever corresponded with
a real Iraqi? You know, one who lives or lived in Iraq until the March 2003 invasion. Not some exile who went to another country
at the age of two.
In the past six months, I have received hundreds of letters from such Iraqis. I have developed a trust and
have continued corresponding with many. They seem to agree with me, not the milquetoast leftists who think they have to apologize
for writing about Iraq.
I asked an Iraqi professor now in Qatar to send me information on the daily routine of Iraqis prior to the
first Gulf War: working habits, recreational pursuits, etc. Here is how he responded:
I am pleased that you ask these questions. Most Western writers treat Iraq as a desert garrison, on top of
a huge oil well, run by an armed-to-the-teeth beast called Saddam.
In his first correspondence to me, the same professor stated:
I have just read with great pleasure your new article about the real story of President Hussein’s capture.
It’s interesting to remember that the President told his lawyer that he expected that the Bush administration would
make up a Hollywood story about his capture.
I saw your earlier article on the man. I feel proud of you to have such a clear vision of what really happened
in Iraq despite all this unprecedented anti-Iraq demonization and propaganda campaign. Great! Well done!
Juan Cole is the darling of Iraq writers for many leftists. I have a hard time knowing where his sympathies
really lie, but maybe I am not bright enough to understand. However, I did write to him one time concerning a statement he
made. He called Saddam Hussein "crazy."
I wanted to know on which information he based his facts. Maybe he could enlighten me to some research of
which I was unaware. His response was that Saddam "just has that look about him." These were not exactly scientifically-based
words. It reminded me of a psychiatrist that the first Bush administration put on TV prior to Desert Storm. The shrink said
that Saddam was crazy because of the angle of his left eyebrow.
I am in now way denigrating Juan Cole’s work. It just confuses me. However, one of my readers did compare
Cole and me. He said:
I am an Iraqi living in Beirut for the past five years, and a keen admirer of your writing about Iraq. You
are without a doubt infinitely more informed on Iraq than all the strategic institutes in Washington and Juan Cole piled together
in one heap before setting fire to the lot.
I’ll take that accolade any day, thank you.
Here is a message from a woman Iraqi writer:
Let me seize the opportunity to tell you how grateful we Iraqis are for your efforts to clarify the spin of
the U.S. administration.
I am sure I am not the first to comment on your excellent article "Saddam Hussein and Reality," though I should
let you know that, for us, people in this region, this is old news.
Iraqis and Arabs had known since the beginning that the story of the Pentagon was fiction. Not only because
of the dates on the trees, but mainly because of the character of the man, Saddam Hussein.
Everyone, even his opponents, know that he has been a man of courage since his childhood. Imagine this kind
of man, after the occupation of his own country, assassination of his own sons and grandson, the scattering of his family,
and the destruction of everything he helped to build during his time, would hide in a hole and then give himself up so easily
while he had a gun in his possession. That was the part of the story that nobody believed.
This message came from a website that now carries my articles:
On behalf of Iraqi patriotic journalists in this website and others, we would like to express our great appreciation
of your fair attitude to the just cause of our Iraqi people as demonstrated by your numerous articles. We were particularly
moved by your honest attitude to our legitimate President Saddam Hussein as shown by your recent article.
I have hundreds of similar responses from Iraqis who actually lived in Iraq for years. They did not live in
London, as Chalabi and Allawi did, for most of their adult lives. They do not need a translator to speak to the Iraqi people
in Arabic like Sistani does. They are real Iraqis.
I do not claim to be perfect in my journalistic pursuits. Nobody is. However, it would be nice if people who
write about Iraq had a few more facts and did not buy into the demonizing agenda of the U.S. administration.
I started at the bottom in my career. At first, I sent freelance articles to publications. Then, I was hired
as a reporter by a weekly newspaper. My first tasks were to cover planning group meetings that lasted for four hours and consisted
of discussions concerning how many rose bushes should be allowed per length of grass on the town’s main road.
My beginnings were humble and mundane. But, I learned the trade. Coincidentally, the publishers of the first
newspaper I worked for were apolitical and they would have rejected many of the commentaries I read about Iraq because of
editorializing in the wrong place or illogical reasoning.
I learned the trade well and was rewarded within three months by being named the editor of the paper. In the
next couple of years, I wrote many investigative articles about local and national events. The publishers accepted them all.
I did not try to change history.
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