Saddam Hussein follow up
After Israel Shamir had sent his
condolences to people of Iraq with martyrdom of President
Saddam Hussein, we received many letters. Here some of them and
some responses:
From SIAM, Indianapolis
Dear Adam, As salam Alaykum wa Rahmatulahi wa
Barakatahu!
Just finished reading your brief remarks of
condolences in regard to the late great Saddam Hussain. On
yesterday i encountered an Iraqi merchant but in the
conversation i was having with him he was adamantly pointing out
to me, while he was rejoicing in Sadam's execution, that if i
were living under Sadam's former regime i would not be able to
write such a book as, Rain of Grace, or allowed to sell it
there. He was informing me of all the many reasons why, and he
was telling me of how the artist, writers, actors, and poets, in
Iraq under Sadam's government were either run out, killed, or
who ended up fleeing for their lives in order to speak their
view points, via their art.
i have always considered you my teacher and
the best teacher for anyone concerning this Middle Eastern
Crisis which is sometimes still very confusing to me, and have
learned much from you in the past. We are friends, as a friend,
i write to you informing you of my desire to see you write a
detailed essay on all the positive historical, spiritual, and
political components you see and understand as regards the truth
behind the life, and now death, of Sadam Hussain, so that we who
are less adept can understand better what you obviously see and
understand so well. If you have already done this and i just
missed seeing such a writing from you, please point out to me
where i can find it.
Your devoted friend - SIAM
Shamir replies:
It is not always necessary to dig into
details when we deal with symbols. The details undermine one
great wholeness in the eyes of innocent and inexperienced. Every
ruler has to commit many deeds that would be crimes if done by
ordinary citizens. Deeds of rulers are to be summed up and
weighted for good and for bad some years later, in historical
perspective. The Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai answered a
question about the French revolution of 1789 with “Too early to
say”.
We should know about Saddam Hussein that he
died with confession of faith, shahada on his lips, that
his last words were ‘God is great’ and his last thoughts were
about our beloved Palestine. We know that he did not surrender
but was captured by the invader. It is forbidden to kill a
prisoner of war, it is forbidden to kill a prince, it is
forbidden to kill a captive prince. This lawless killing will
suffice to call him a martyr on a par of Louis XVI of France,
Charles I of England or Nicolas II of Russia.
He was not different from many Palestinian
martyrs assassinated by Zionists. Arafat, poisoned by Sharon
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=29419
, Abu Jihad shot by Barak, Sheikh Yassin killed by a missile,
dozens of others – Saddam belongs to this group. They fought,
they were heavily demonised by the enemy, they died and
sanctified God with their death.
But if one wants to look beyond the bottom
line, Saddam was a leader who eliminated illiteracy, gave health
care to his people, gave free education, allowed women to
participate in social life, turned his country into one of the
most advanced in the Middle East. He was one who sent his
missiles to Israel, and caused the peace process to start.
Without his SCUDs, Israelis wouldn’t make peace with the PLO in
1993.
There are many decisions he made and came to
regret. But I am not sure now is the time to deal with them.
When a man is demonised by the enemy, we are tempted to
safeguard our judgement by saying “He was a bad man but”.
Usually there are good reasons for this caution for poets,
dissidents and fighters against empire are often troublesome
men, even more so if they accessed to power. But we should fight
this temptation. They are not persecuted and demonised because
they were unfaithful to their wives, but because they were
faithful to their people, their country, their muse. If and when
mausoleum of Saddam will be constructed in centre of Baghdad,
then the time will come to speak of his faults, not now. Not for
one minute, not by a single word would I like to support the
official narrative.
There are some Iraqis who have a legitimate
grievance against the late leader. Every ruler leaves a lot of
suffering in his wake. These grievances are exploited by the
enemy. But wise people should try to help and overcome this
feeling. When Hitler invaded Russia, he tried to exploit
grievances many people had against Stalin and Communism. Those
who succumbed to his temptation ended as traitors to their
country. Those who refused it won their souls and their place in
history. Ivan Bunin, a great Russian writer, a Nobel prize
winner and an enemy of Stalin and communism, came to the Soviet
embassy and swore allegiance to Stalin, when the fate of Russia
was in doubt. Now great Iraqis should follow the same line, and
stop bickering about Saddam. They have a bigger job: to defeat
the Empire and to set Iraq free.
From Jessica Ramer
Thank you for this. While I thought Saddam
Hussein's treatment of his political opponents was criminal, it
is also probably true that US Presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush
II killed more innocent Iraqis than Saddam Hussein did. Will we
ever see them hang for war crimes?
In spite of my ardent dislike of Hussein's
political repression, I also think that one Saddam Hussein was
worth twenty George W. Bushes.
From Uruknet Editor
I wish to thank you for your splendid
words on the assassination of the President of the Republic of
Iraq:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m29525&hd=&size=1&l=e
Yours is indeed the best piece I've read
about this monstrous crime.
I've received a lot of emails praising your
great article.
My best regards, and thanks again,
Paola Pisi
editor
www.uruknet.info
From Ali Baghdadi, The Arab Journal:
Dear Mr. Shamir,
Tears ran down my cheeks
while I was reading your condolences for the fall of our beloved
hero. Your condolences are true and sincere. They come from a
man with a big heart; who belongs to the entire world; who
succeeded in overcoming all national and religious prejudices;
who is tirelessly working for a better world in which peace and
common sense may some day prevail.
I emailed your message to
others to share and enjoy.
I will always remain your
brother. I do love you.
Ali Baghdadi
From Hiroshi Eguma,
Spain
Adam.
I've translated your condolences to Iraqi
people into Japanese and sent to a Japanese web site, adding my
opinion : what really they, the USA, the UK and Israel, executed
was a symbol, an axis and spirits of an Arab country to fight
against Israel's vicious ruling on the Near East and filthy
intention to control the Middle East Area. Even if Saddam was a
dictator, he was one of the worst enemies for Israel and the
best friends for Palestinian people. The USA has directly been
committing the war crime, using the 9/11 plot and exposing all
historically shameful lies, but beside these events, Israel's
interest apparently exists. The President Hussein was really
fighting them.
Glory to the fallen heroes.
From Jamil Ramahi
Mr. Adam,
With your kind words, someone cannot feel
sad, but joy, for those who has committed such crimes against
the innocents across the world will eventually get their
punishment, as history has shown us before. Mercy be upon Mr.
Saddam Hussein's soul and those who follow his steps.
From Anthony Payne
I agree with you one hundred percent,
murdered by the Americans for these 'terrible' jews, what
hypocrisy! They will pay for this, I am sure.
Best regards. Anthony Payne.
Anthony-D-Payne.com
From Lesley Lowe, Cairo
Israel,
How gallant in face of present thinking put
forth by those that seek to deceive, that you
write as you do below.
Leslie
From Lille, New York
It is so very sad, sent you several articles
because I knew you would understand. Catching up with all the
news today, exactly it is better to die on one's feet than to
live on one's knees to grovel. It is the degradation of a
leader, brazen contempt to choose Eid, the tawdry traitors have
forgotten Iraq's heritage/history/ Will the fragmentation
intensify or will the resistance antidote it? Glad you wrote,
was waiting for a response. Has the global kleptocracy become
completely insane? well people are so programmed. He was the
President, this was an assassination with the world's
complicity.
Will no one speak up? there has to be a
breaking point somewhere.....Inshallah all the cowards will be
degraded in turn
From Hanne, New York
Thank you, Israel
Shamir, for your words honouring the brutally slain statesman
Saddam Hussein. You speak from my heart and I am saddened as I
am enraged, that the real murderers and criminals are still
walking freely. Hanne
From Tony Lyons, Au
Now that Saddam Hussein has been hanged as
directed by the kangaroo court in Iraq, the United States has
its best chance yet to avoid a Vietnam type of defeat. It should
redefine its objective for going to war with Iraq. It should
declare “Mission Accomplished” with the regime change, and
immediately quit Iraq and bring the troops home. Forget about
WMDs, forget about spreading democracy, forget about everything
but Regime change, because that’s about all that further
fighting and killing will achieve. It will be five hundred years
before the middle east has anything resembling European type
democracy. The more expensive imitation of democracy as
practiced in the United States, could be possible in about half
of that time
If the Coalition of the willing still
persists with its attempts to stabilize Iraq and bring the
Insurgencies under control, they will need to annihilate between
eight and ten million Iraqis, most of them as collateral damage.
Such action would requires the best spin doctors and public
relations programs the world can bring together so that the
citizenry of the coalition of the willing and of the European
countries could accept the carnage that would follow
If the United States embarked on an exercise
of such destruction, there would immediately be hostile regime
changes in; Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.
Pakistan would revert to its true colors. The Jewish holocaust
industry could not survive a larger holocaust than theirs.
Israel would be threatened as never before. The Israelis could
be brought to account for killing of innocent Palestinian women
and children, for the killing of doctors and shooting at
ambulances during the destruction of Janine, the killing of
Lebanese refugees fleeing the recent attacks on Lebanon, and the
massacres within the refugee camps in Lebanon and Palestine
The United States has this one last chance
to get out of this quagmire while pretending to have some degree
of success.
RIP, Saddam
From Tom White (written before the death was
announced)
I have a cold feeling contemplating the NBC
story that says he will be released to the Iraquis and killed by
Sunday, rather after the manner in which a rancher releases
grouse or pheasant so that Sunday hunters can kill the permitted
bag. (Did not something like that happen to the Lord Christ?)
Saddam is apparently ready. May God have
mercy upon him. Surely we have had none, despite his having been
a former “ward” of the U.S., nor will the Iraqis, many of whom
quite understandably would think it fair to kill him for his
political and military failure to save their state.
If he dies we shall pay for it somehow. I
don’t know how, but we will pay. If Bush extends clemency, and
apparently only he can, since we obviously control all of Iraq’s
official public statements and acts, it would be a very, very,
good thing.
I move ever
nearer, as our government demonstrates over and over again the
sheer folly of violence, to the non-violent position Father
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
wrote of on LRC.
Why not? What have any of us left to lose? Certainly not
intellectual—spiritual—self-respect. Apparently just our
miserable physical comfort.
From Zaineb Istrabadi, New York
Dear Israel Shamir,
I write to you as an Iraqi who is horrified
by your reaction to Saddam's death. He was not a faithful son of
Iraq; he did not care about anything but himself, and he and his
sons will be remembered for the criminals, rapists, and murders
that they were. I am highly disappointed in your message.
Professor Said would have been too. Kindly remove me from your
list.
Sincerely yours,
Zaineb Istrabadi
Former assistant to Prof. Edward Said
Shamir responds:
Dear Zaineb,
probably then you were dancing to the news
the criminal hanged? Maybe you even moved back to liberated Iraq
now the mission is accomplished? May I inform my readers of this
step of yours? As for late Prof Said, have you had a spiritual
séance? Did he come to you at night and whispered: let him be
hanged?
Regards and Happy New Year,
Israel Shamir
Raja Chemayel adds:
may I remember each of us that even or also
Judas was a "former assistant"......
just like this lady who carries the same name
as the "Iraqi" ambassador to the USA
what a coincidence !!
From Bob Finch
Saddam was a long time american puppet. After
iran’s islamic revolution he opportunistically took american
dollars to wage war against his own co-religionists rather than
aligning himself with iran against america and its jewish
allies. The currently unfolding sunni-shiite civil war has its
roots in saddam’s treachery. He received his reward in 1990 when
he was brutally betrayed by his puppet masters who themselves
were forced into a choice between the jews and saddam
However, his new found defiance of
jewish-american imperialism was magnificent. I will always
admire him for blowing up kuwait’s oil wells. At the time, he
was condemned by environmentalists for the damage this caused
but all this shows is just how stupid, ignorant, and politically
conventional most environmentalists are – the greenless greens.
From the Earth’s perspective less damage was done to the
planet’s life sustaining processes by saddam’s actions than if
this oil had been exported to the west. Please see ‘Chatila
Iraq. A Deep Green Analysis of the 1991 Gulf War.’
http://www.geocities.com/carbonomics/MCtfirm/10tf01/10tf01a.html
I want sunnis and shiites to unite to abolish
the jewish state and wouldn’t want to jeopardize this by
offering condolences to saddam no matter that he deserved his
punishment less than bush and blair
bob finch
From Sami el-Radhi
How unfortunate that you should choose to
trample over the memories of the countless martyrs, men, women
and children, the orphans, the widows - all the innocents
murdered by Saddam and his regime - by writing the below
message. I find it hard to imagine that you would be totally
unaware of all his crimes; perhaps you think that such a
salutation suits your anti-imperialist agenda. And I too am
anti-imperialist. Which is part of why I am anti-Saddam. But I
do not adopt the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Some would choose to adopt this attitude because of the fact
that they and their families have not suffered directly as a
result of Saddam's opression - how tragic that they do not care
at all about the suffering of the Iraqi people.
I do not know if you simply do not care about
the suffering of the Iraqi nation under Saddam or turn a blind
eye to it, and I guess it doesn't matter because the result is
the same.
As for being held to account in this world
and in the next world, I have no doubt that those who approve of
Saddam's crimes will be held to account. What we say does
matter.
Sami
From Peter Budarick
Thank you for your condolences Israel Shamir.
You are a man who can understand so many things i cannot express
because i am not understanding of many cultures as you are. But
i do get some hints!
You are right and a good man. If Saddam
should be hanged for his sins, than what about all the rest of
the "leaders" of mankind. Should they also be hanged after
receiving a similar trial? Consider the precedent they have
started here! Please don't misunderstand me, Israel, i do not
worship Saddam Hussein. Only Jesus Christ is our worthy leader
dear Israel.
Peter
From Sarah
Dear Israel,
While I do not by all
means support Saddam's execution, I still do not consider him a
hero. And to be honest with you I find it bit bewildering that,
despite all of Saddam's atrocities, you still consider him a
hero.
Happy Eid and Happy New
Year. May 2007 bring you happiness, laughter, and success.
Regards, Sarah
Here is a collection of recent writing about
Saddam:
1) Who is this
man they call Saddam? Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity
Campaign
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=29412
Saddam helped to nationalize Iraqi oil
fields, which caused a lot damage to foreign oil companies.
Through the revenues brought in by the oil, Saddam helped the
country launch a campaign against illiteracy with illiteracy
levels dropping to less than 10%. The Iraqi "Ba’athist"
government also issued a law which made education available and
compulsory to all children and more importantly, this was
provided for free. This allowed Iraqi children the chance to
read and write, instead of selling cigarettes in the streets. As
Felicity Arbuthnot stated at the 1998 Fire Brigade Union
conference, "UNESCO said that Iraq was one of the only countries
in the world where, even if you were born in absolute poverty,
with illiterate parents you could come out of the education
system either a brain surgeon, archaeologist or whatever you
wished to become."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo
completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=29412
http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq12302006.html
2) Saddam At The End Of A Rope
By Tariq Ali
30 December, 2006
Counterpunch
It was symbolic that 2006 ended with a
colonial hanging--- most of it (bar the last moments) shown on
state television in occupied Iraq. It has been that sort of year
in the Arab world. After a trial so blatantly rigged that even
Human Rights Watch---the largest single unit of the US Human
Rights industry--- had to condemn it as a total travesty. Judges
were changed on Washington's orders; defense lawyers were killed
and the whole procedure resembled a well-orchestrated lynch mob.
Where Nuremberg was a more dignified application of victor's
justice, Saddam's trial has, till now, been the crudest and most
grotesque. The Great Thinker President's reference to it 'as a
milestone on the road to Iraqi democracy' as clear an indication
as any that Washington pressed the trigger.
The contemptible leaders of the European
Union, supposedly hostile to capital punishment, were silent, as
usual. And while some Shia factions celebrated in Baghdad, the
figures published by a fairly independent establishment outfit,
the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies (its
self-description: "which attempts to spread the conscious
necessity of realizing basic freedoms, consolidating democratic
values and foundations of civil society") reveal that just under
90 per cent of Iraqis feel the situation in the country was
better before it was occupied.
Only five per cent of those questioned said
Iraq is better today than in 2003; 89 per cent of the people
said the political situation had deteriorated; 79 per cent saw a
decline in the economic situation; 12 per cent felt things had
improved and 9 per cent said there was no change.
Unsurprisingly, 95 per cent felt the security situation was
worse than before. Interestingly, about 50 per cent of those
questioned identified themselves only as "Muslims"; 34 per cent
as Shiites and 14 per cent as Sunnis. Add to this the figures
supplied by the UNHCR: 1.6 million Iraqis (7 per cent of the
population) have fled the country since March 2003 and 100,000
Iraqis leave every month, Christians, doctors, engineers, women,
etc. There are one million in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 150,000
in Cairo. These are refugees that do not excite the sympathy of
Western public opinion, since the US (and EU backed) occupation
is the cause. These are not compared (as was the case in Kosovo)
to the atrocities of the Third Reich. Perhaps it was these
statistics (and the estimates of a million Iraqi dead) that
necessitated the execution of Saddam Hussein?
That Saddam was a tyrant is beyond dispute,
but what is conveniently forgotten is that most of his crimes
were committed when he was a staunch ally of those who now
occupy the country. It was, as he admitted in one of his trial
outbursts, the approval of Washington (and the poison gas
supplied by West Germany) that gave him the confidence to douse
Halabja with chemicals in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war. He
deserved a proper trial and punishment in an independent Iraq.
Not this. The double standards applied by the West never cease
to astonish. Indonesia's Suharto who presided over a mountain of
corpses (At least a million to accept the lowest figure) was
protected by Washington. He never annoyed them as much as
Saddam.
And what of those who have created the mess
in Iraq today? The torturers of Abu Ghraib; the pitiless
butchers of Fallujah; the ethnic cleansers of Baghdad, the
Kurdish prison boss who boasts that his model is Guantanamo.
Will Bush and Blair ever be tried for war crimes? Doubtful. And
Aznar, currently employed as a lecturer at Georgetown University
in Washington, DC , where the language of instruction is English
of which he doesn't speak a word. His reward is a punishment for
the students.
3) From Kurt
Nimmo:
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=705
It was like a scene from a Sergio Leone
spaghetti western—Saddam Hussein, or somebody we are told is
Saddam Hussein, was marched to the gallows and strung up, a
victim of frontier justice, the frontier in this case being a
country illegally and brutally invaded for the sake of Israel,
as Philip Zelikow unabashedly tells us, not that the corporate
media pays attention to such bothersome details
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=706
Saddam is Dead, Long Live Saddam Hussein
4) The Black
Bull died today
By Mirza Yawar Baig
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16019.htm
They did it. They gave this Ummah a sacrifice
on the day of Eid ul Adha. What an unforgettable Eid!! A human
sacrifice. Not a sheep or goat. What a message! …Now They had
control of the oil fields. And in the process a few hundred
thousand Iraqis died at the hands of Americans; well that is
inevitable - collateral damage. Death is not the "item" in the
news. It is the death of the myth of American justice and
freedom. So now we can all breathe freely as we see the true
nature of the animal before us.
So they talk about how brutal Saddam was and
how many people he killed and how he 'started' the Iraq-Iran
war. The issue of course is none of those things. If these were
in fact issues, then we would see Bush and all his cronies
swinging from the gallows long before Saddam came anywhere near
them. The issue is America's right to invade a sovereign nation.
Remember O People! The name of the animal is Empire. And you and
I have a choice. Sell your soul and bow your head in submission
to the King. Or raise your head and it will be cut off…
From
www.uruknet.info
http://www.jamiat.org.za/news/Jul03/JustHowEvilSaddam.htm
5) Just how evil was Saddam Hussein?
by William James
Martin MediaMonitors.net
Just how evil was Saddam Hussein? In
Hussein's 30 year hold on power he has launched two attacks on
the neighbouring states of Iran and Kuwait. That, however,
merely puts Iraq in the same category with Israel which has
acted likewise in the '67 War and again in 1982 with the
invasion of Lebanon
Despite the advertisements of the Israeli
government, Israel was never seriously threatened in either case
In evaluating the evils of Saddam Hussein,
the immorality of the internal repression within Iraq which
included executions and torture must be weighed against the
immorality of the 13 year US sponsored UN sanction regime which
UN agency estimates has claimed the live of 5000 children and
7,500 people per month over a 12 year period. These sanctions
transformed a nation with a burgeoning middle class and with a
free coeducational education system and a free health care
system, which reached 93 % of the Iraqi people and was known as
the jewel of the Middle East, into one in which most of the
deaths occurring were preventable given the proper medicines and
clean water, neither of which have been available in adequate
supply
In an interview with TV journalist Leslie
Stahl, Clinton's UN representative Madeleine Albright was asked
on CBS's 60 Minutes "We have heard that half a million children
have died [as a consequence of the UN sanction regime]. is the
price worth it? Ms Albright replied, "I think this is a very
hard choice, but the price is worth it."
It is unlikely that Saddam Hussein ever
killed half a million children. Are we really in a position to
self-righteously condemn Saddam Hussein for being the
incarnation of evil? And by the way, Saddam Hussein was
apparently telling the truth about weapons of mass destruction,
it was George W. Bush who lied.
From The
International Action Center
The
International Action Center (IAC) hold the U.S. government
responsible for the decision of the “Iraqi High Tribunal" to
carry out the death sentence against Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein and considers this execution part of the Bush
administration’s plan to once again escalate the war. The timing
of the execution was clearly intended to pre-empt news that the
death toll of U.S. service people has hit 3,000 while that of
Iraqis is in the hundreds of thousands. Such an execution will
be another war crime against the Iraqi people
As we have made clear
in prior statements and articles, the IAC does not consider the
capture, trial and judgment of the Iraqi president to be legal
under international, U.S. or Iraqi law.* This punishment has
nothing to do with the alleged crimes of the Iraqi leader nor is
it part of an historical judgment of his role. It is the act of
a conquering power against a nation that is occupied against the
will not only of its 2003 legal government but also against the
will of the vast majority of its people
No authoritative human
rights body, including those who were and are opponents and
severely hostile to President Saddam Hussein such as the Human
Rights Watch, considers his trial fair or the sentence just (see
Dec. 27, 2006 statement). We in the IAC say no to the execution
of Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants, no to the escalation of
the Iraq war that will mean more deaths for Iraqis and for U.S.
troops and for an intensified mobilization to stop the
occupation of Iraq.
Demonize to Colonize
Demonize to
Colonize by Ramsey Clark "In the determination of any criminal
charge ... everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public
hearing by... URL:
http://www.iacenter.org/Iraq/rc-demonize2004.htm
- 19KB - 28 Nov 2005
Ramsey Clark: Why I'm
Willing to Defend Hussein
Why I'm Willing to Defend
Hussein by Ramsey Clark Published on Monday, January 24, 2005 by
the Los Angeles Times Late last month, I traveled...
URL:
http://www.iacenter.org/Iraq/rc_whydefend-sh012405.htm
- 13KB - 28 Nov 2005
The Trial of Saddam
Hussein / Anti-war Movement Must Reject Colonial 'Justice'
The Trial of
Saddam Hussein / Anti-war Movement Must Reject Colonial
'Justice' Le procès de Saddam, justice coloniale By Sara
Flounders,... URL:
http://www.iacenter.org/Iraq/iraq_shtrial2005.htm
- 34KB - 28 Jan 2006
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