Saddam! What a name! When he was in power he made Iraqis chant “Your name shook America Saddam.” Here it is. It did shake America. In fact, it shook the whole world.
Since I was born in 1980, Saddam was everywhere. His pictures, posters, and name were in front of the eyes of Iraqis. It was even inside their heads all the time. They were either people supporting him or not. In all cases, he was there with his iron fist, cruelty and power. Every Iraqi feared him. No one dared to criticize him even by whispering inside their homes. The whole family, if not the whole tribe, would have been vanished.
When we were kids in school, we used to chant for him in every class and every Thursday morning during the “Flag’s Salute”. It was almost “Saddam’s Salute” more than a flag one. I recall how a student carrying a huge poster of Saddam marches to the flag along with two other students. One of the two, raises the flag to the top, the second salutes and the third raises Saddam poster and then the whole students chant “Long live Saddam Hussein” in one unified sound accompanied by a gun shot in the air as a sign of pride and victory.
In 1980s, I was a child who did not realize what Saddam stood for. All I knew through what I learned in school, Saddam was the “crown of the Arabs” and the “protector of the Arab Homeland from the Persians”. He was our hero at that time. I remember when the war with Iran was over on August 8, 1988. The streets were filled with millions of people celebrating that “victorious” day.
In early 1984, Saddam’s men were still forcing the people to join the army to “fight the enemy.” They chased my father. He was neither a Baathist nor in the military. In their eyes, he was supposed to do both, joining the army and be a Baathist. I remember how my father refused to do so. He was a British-style man who believes in education and nice peaceful life with his family. He hated the military. According to his decision, we had to go into hiding in several places in order not to let the Baathist take him by force from our house like what they did with many other people who ended up Martyrs.
Most of my relatives, who are mostly Shiites, lost their beloved ones because of his tyranny and fond of wars. Some lost them by his intelligence accusing them of being Iranians just because their great grandfather was born in Iran. My aunt’s husband and his four brothers were taken by the intelligence to Abu Ghraib prison. Later, they were told not to visit them anymore. Since then, they realized they were killed.
My other aunt lost her 25 year-old son in the war and my cousin was taken as a war prisoner and then released, not to mention my other uncle who was wounded several times.
In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait. All I could understand at the that time is that something wrong happened but I couldn’t understand it. I asked my parents several times but found no answer. I knew is that we were in trouble. Kuwait became part of our Iraq. It was included in text books, maps, and every single thing that has to do with the geography of Iraq. Saddam called it the “19th province”. Even car plates in Kuwait were put as “Iraq-Kuwait” like in “Iraq-Baghdad”
Then in 1991, the coalition forces decided to punish Saddam. They did punish someone. But it wasn’t Saddam. It was the Iraqi people and their country. Saddam was so powerful that he restored most of the country to its former shape in a few months. Sanctions were imposed to put some pressure on Saddam. But of course, he did not care. He was the president. He had the entire in country and its wealth in his hands. It’s only Iraqis who suffered a non-humanitarian embargo.
Since that time, I started realizing what was really going on. However, it was hard to know many things due to the black-out of the world news.
After he was toppled, we were cautious but happy at the same time. We didn’t know that we were let down. My family was suspicious from the beginning. They finally told me about how Saddam was the US favorite puppet in 1980s. By the end of the war,video CDs and pictures of how Saddam was backed up by the Americans were seen everywhere in the streets and CD stores. The most famous picture was that of the criminal Rumsfeld shaking hand with Saddam offering his country’s support and his president’s regards.
Here we are today. Our former dictator is sentenced to death. For me, it is not a big deal. Death for him is something that is going to make him rest. I believe he should not be dead. He should be tortured like the ones he and his men tortured. He should be humiliated like how he humiliated his people. Then, he should be hanged. Where? In al-Tahrir square where he once hanged victims in public. This is the kind of justice that should be done.
The question remains: what will happen next? Does it even matter if he is dead or not? I don’t think so. He is gone. He’ll never be back. We should concentrate on the present. Some people accused me of being a “Saddamist” and “Baathist” because of my views against the occupation and the mess it caused since 2003. When I said his era was better than this era, it doesn’t mean I want him back. It was a comparison to tell the people that what is going on now is worse than before where everything was almost bad as well. I always mention that because instead of one tyrant, we have multiple tyrants now whom are ALSO supported by the Americans. And please, do not tell me that Hakim, Barzani, Maliki, Jafari, and many others in the parliament and government are “the new good leaders” of Iraq. They are new leaders, right! But they are the NEW TYRANTS OF IRAQ. Yes! They were elected by the people but like Saddam, they let their people down AGAIN.
baghdadtreasure@gmail.com
Since I was born in 1980, Saddam was everywhere. His pictures, posters, and name were in front of the eyes of Iraqis. It was even inside their heads all the time. They were either people supporting him or not. In all cases, he was there with his iron fist, cruelty and power. Every Iraqi feared him. No one dared to criticize him even by whispering inside their homes. The whole family, if not the whole tribe, would have been vanished.
When we were kids in school, we used to chant for him in every class and every Thursday morning during the “Flag’s Salute”. It was almost “Saddam’s Salute” more than a flag one. I recall how a student carrying a huge poster of Saddam marches to the flag along with two other students. One of the two, raises the flag to the top, the second salutes and the third raises Saddam poster and then the whole students chant “Long live Saddam Hussein” in one unified sound accompanied by a gun shot in the air as a sign of pride and victory.
In 1980s, I was a child who did not realize what Saddam stood for. All I knew through what I learned in school, Saddam was the “crown of the Arabs” and the “protector of the Arab Homeland from the Persians”. He was our hero at that time. I remember when the war with Iran was over on August 8, 1988. The streets were filled with millions of people celebrating that “victorious” day.
In early 1984, Saddam’s men were still forcing the people to join the army to “fight the enemy.” They chased my father. He was neither a Baathist nor in the military. In their eyes, he was supposed to do both, joining the army and be a Baathist. I remember how my father refused to do so. He was a British-style man who believes in education and nice peaceful life with his family. He hated the military. According to his decision, we had to go into hiding in several places in order not to let the Baathist take him by force from our house like what they did with many other people who ended up Martyrs.
Most of my relatives, who are mostly Shiites, lost their beloved ones because of his tyranny and fond of wars. Some lost them by his intelligence accusing them of being Iranians just because their great grandfather was born in Iran. My aunt’s husband and his four brothers were taken by the intelligence to Abu Ghraib prison. Later, they were told not to visit them anymore. Since then, they realized they were killed.
My other aunt lost her 25 year-old son in the war and my cousin was taken as a war prisoner and then released, not to mention my other uncle who was wounded several times.
In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait. All I could understand at the that time is that something wrong happened but I couldn’t understand it. I asked my parents several times but found no answer. I knew is that we were in trouble. Kuwait became part of our Iraq. It was included in text books, maps, and every single thing that has to do with the geography of Iraq. Saddam called it the “19th province”. Even car plates in Kuwait were put as “Iraq-Kuwait” like in “Iraq-Baghdad”
Then in 1991, the coalition forces decided to punish Saddam. They did punish someone. But it wasn’t Saddam. It was the Iraqi people and their country. Saddam was so powerful that he restored most of the country to its former shape in a few months. Sanctions were imposed to put some pressure on Saddam. But of course, he did not care. He was the president. He had the entire in country and its wealth in his hands. It’s only Iraqis who suffered a non-humanitarian embargo.
Since that time, I started realizing what was really going on. However, it was hard to know many things due to the black-out of the world news.
After he was toppled, we were cautious but happy at the same time. We didn’t know that we were let down. My family was suspicious from the beginning. They finally told me about how Saddam was the US favorite puppet in 1980s. By the end of the war,video CDs and pictures of how Saddam was backed up by the Americans were seen everywhere in the streets and CD stores. The most famous picture was that of the criminal Rumsfeld shaking hand with Saddam offering his country’s support and his president’s regards.
Here we are today. Our former dictator is sentenced to death. For me, it is not a big deal. Death for him is something that is going to make him rest. I believe he should not be dead. He should be tortured like the ones he and his men tortured. He should be humiliated like how he humiliated his people. Then, he should be hanged. Where? In al-Tahrir square where he once hanged victims in public. This is the kind of justice that should be done.
The question remains: what will happen next? Does it even matter if he is dead or not? I don’t think so. He is gone. He’ll never be back. We should concentrate on the present. Some people accused me of being a “Saddamist” and “Baathist” because of my views against the occupation and the mess it caused since 2003. When I said his era was better than this era, it doesn’t mean I want him back. It was a comparison to tell the people that what is going on now is worse than before where everything was almost bad as well. I always mention that because instead of one tyrant, we have multiple tyrants now whom are ALSO supported by the Americans. And please, do not tell me that Hakim, Barzani, Maliki, Jafari, and many others in the parliament and government are “the new good leaders” of Iraq. They are new leaders, right! But they are the NEW TYRANTS OF IRAQ. Yes! They were elected by the people but like Saddam, they let their people down AGAIN.
baghdadtreasure@gmail.com
