Message 6/38
Date: 10-Apr-03 @ 08:21 AM -
RE: al jazeera
Yes, the tearing down of the statue.. an amazing moment.. the lid coming off after decades of western funded repression. Remember that Saddam was the US/UK's hired help right up until Iraq invaded Kuwait. Since then the UN sanctions couple with Saddams inhumanity have meant that the Iraqi people have lived under increasing poverty and disease, with hundreds of thousands of children dying from poverty, malnutrition and disease.
When he gassed (with western supplied technology) Halabjah (killing 5000 men, women and children) those nasty left wing activists tried to get our government in the UK to stop selling arms to Saddam.
UK/US Government response?
Nope, sorry.. he is our ally in the region! We need to back him against the evil mullahs of Iran. To whom, incidentally, we were also supplying with arms during the Iran/Iraq war. The west was quite happy to see those countries wear each other down. When it looked like Iraq was about to be invaded by the triumphant Iranian troops, we supplied Saddam with the means and instructions to create chemical weapons. He used these against the Iranians and made the famous comment along the lines of, 'It is like spraying flies, they just die where they stand'.
Now, Saddam found out about the west supplying arms to Iran at the same time they were supplying arms to Iraq and became a tad suspicious about the west's motives.
So, the statue comes down to great joy. It certainly moved me. The crowd were Shi'ia muslims who have been brutalised and repressed by Saddam for nearly 25 years, he even built them a custom 'ghetto' to live in in the east of Baghdad.
The Sunni muslims are still fighting in the rest of Baghdad, because they were the favoured group under Saddam and represent the most loyal faction to Saddam in the country. They also know that there will be a lot of revenge bloodletting and that they will be the target.
A quote from a british military anaylyst yesterday. 'Hopefully we can get the War over before the Civil War starts.'
The problem of course is that Iraq isn't actually a country. It was created by the British after World War I from various bits and pieces left over from the Ottoman Empire (The Turks). So, you have 3 seperate and distinct populations who basically hate each other.
But yes, good riddance to that utter bastard Saddam.
At the moment, Baghdad is having to deal with 100 casualties an hour, operations are taking place without anaesthetics and thousands of men, women and children have and are going to die in pain.
Ideally, the west should give the Kurds their own country. This won't happen because the Turks would probably invade instantly (they have a huge Kurdish population and are afraid they would rise up and want to join the new Kurdish nation.)
The Turks have been repressing and killing Kurds for a long time. But who cares? Certainly not the coalition.
At this moment the best we can do is hope and pray that some sort of peace comes this bastard child of the British Empire, Iraq.