Iraq's moment of joy will soon pass (Who is going to try Bremer, Bush, Rumsfeld and Blair?)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | December 16, 2003 | Sami Ramadani

[dead]

Contrary to American claims, the resistance will grow now that Saddam has been found, writes Sami Ramadani.

The joy was deep, but the pain, too, was overwhelming as I remembered relatives and friends who lost their lives opposing Saddam Hussein's tyranny or in his wars.

I remember my dearest friend, Hazim, whom I hugged goodbye in 1969 at the canteen of the college of medicine in Baghdad. I never saw him again. Although only 15, Hazim had the courage to distribute anti-Baathist leaflets at our school in Baghdad within months of the 1963 CIA-backed coup that brought the Baathists to power. I remember, too, my dear friend Ghassan, who died in a hospital in Canada after many years in exile. He didn't live to see the moment he had waited so long for.

But here it was, at last: Saddam's surrender in ignominy. However, this delightful moment - enjoyed by all the Iraqis I spoke to as the news of his capture was breaking - was soured by the fact that it was Iraq's newly appointed tyrant, Paul Bremer, doing the boasting: "Ladies and gentlemen ... we got him."

What will the Americans do with their captive? Is Saddam going to face a trial? Will the truth of his mass murders and crimes come out? Will the trial shed light on how the US backed him and supplied him with chemical weapons? Will it reveal how the US encouraged him to launch the war on Iran, causing the death of a million Iranians and Iraqis? Will the trial go into the alliances with and support for Saddam by so many who are now in the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council? The dark clouds over Iraq haven't lifted yet.

Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by the unjust and immoral US-led war, and the death toll continues to rise as innocent people are being killed in military raids, bombardments and Sharon-style collective punishment, and harmed by the depleted uranium shells used by the forces. So at this moment of joy, other questions keep intruding: who is going to try Bremer, Bush, Rumsfeld and Blair? Will Iraq ever be free?

One thing I do know: Saddam was not leading the resistance from his dirty little hole. This was acknowledged yesterday by an unlikely source - Sherif bin Ali, a relative of the last Iraqi king, Faisal II, and a strong supporter of the US-led invasion.

"The truth must be spelt out," he said. "Saddam has nothing to do with the resistance. It is time to call on the resistance to declare a truce."

It has suited the US to blame Saddam for the resistance to the occupation and to use him as a pretext for the continued occupation. But bin Ali is merely confirming what the CIA and US Congress sources have recently confirmed: that there are no fewer than 15 organisations involved in the resistance, which enjoys widespread support.

Saddam's surrender is likely to embolden the political forces in Iraq which, until now, feared that a call for the immediate end to the occupation might help Saddam return to power.

The largely peaceful resistance in Baghdad and the so-called Shia areas of Iraq will also attract greater attention. In the past two weeks, union leaders in Baghdad and the south have been arrested. The occupation authorities shamelessly used Saddam's 1987 law barring union activity within state institutions.

But such opposition will be difficult to suppress. This week in Hilla, a so-called Shia city, a militant but peaceful mass insurrection succeeded in deposing Iskander Jawad Witwit, the US-appointed governor. The thousands who besieged the governor's office called for free elections to replace him.

Now that Saddam is no longer a bogyman to scare the people with, union and other mass opposition is likely to increase, complementing and coalescing with the armed opposition.

One demand is now uniting nearly all Iraqis, from armed resisters to unionists to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani: elections. And it is the one demand to which the US has refused to agree, because it has accurately assessed the likely result. That is also why it swiftly moved to stop elections of city mayors and why, a few weeks ago, it sacked the elected dean of Baghdad university after his outspoken criticisms of the occupation authorities.

Saddam's ignominious end is likely to weaken US-led efforts to divide the Iraqis along sectarian and national lines. In memory of all those who died resisting Saddam's tyranny, the peaceful and armed resistance is likely to intensify and attract greater support across the world, including that of the American people.

Sami Ramadani was a political refugee from Saddam's regime and is a senior lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University.

[dead]

Who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop?
Who put the sham in the sami-rama-dan-i?

[SF Republican]

My Momma said to say nothing unless you say something nice; uh, let's see, uh, freedom of speech is nice.

[Sunshine Sister]

It didn't take very long for me to have the same thought. What kind of idiot wrote this stuff?

[uglybiker]

Freedom of speech does not give one the right to be taken seriously.

[VoodooEconomics]

"It has suited the US to blame Saddam for the resistance to the occupation and to use him as a pretext for the continued occupation. But bin Ali is merely confirming what the CIA and US Congress sources have recently confirmed: that there are no fewer than 15 organisations involved in the resistance, which enjoys widespread support. "

So why did we bother to capture Saddam ?

[dead]

It was a pointless and symbolic excercise in American Imperialism executed solely to improve the election outlook for George Bush, so he continue to make his rich friends richer at the expense of the poor around the world.

(maybe I should stop visiting DU...)

[cricket]

"Who put the sham in the sami-rama-dan-i?" LOL. . .

Sami may think of himself as 'contemporary'; but his thinking is still tribal.

Maybe he should reconsider the 'whole' of Iraq's history and their neighbors as well.

The fact remains that too often, there are only degrees of 'bad' in the choices available. Much of what he cites was the 'best' of the worst'; and from that history and from America now shedding it's 'own blood' to overthrow an evil tyrant; Iraquis are now, finally posed to make a final liberating choice for themselves.

Whose fault will it be if they blow it.

Move on Sami; grow up and be part of the solution; instead of part of the problem.

[cricket]

"(maybe I should stop visiting DU...)"

reading their posts feels as morbid as watching an accident. . .these peole are truly of a lesser mind.

Pathtic and more than a bit sickening!

[cloud8]

"his delightful moment - enjoyed by all the Iraqis I spoke to as the news of his capture was breaking - was soured by the fact that it was Iraq's newly appointed tyrant, Paul Bremer, doing the boasting: "Ladies and gentlemen ... we got him."

Uhh, you're welcome.

[thinktwice]

An anti-American ethos flows out from this man's words.

I'd like to see verification, for instance, to his claim that it was a US CIA operation that put Baathists into power in Iraq.

[cookcounty]

" the 1963 CIA-backed coup that brought the Baathists to power...." Even if accurate, recall that in 1963:

The Democrats ran the Senate
The Democrats ran the House
The Democrats controlled the White House
Why, what a rotten schemer that JFK was. I'll bet Teddy is going to have something to say about this!!!

[dead]

reading their posts feels as morbid as watching an accident. . .these peole are truly of a lesser mind.

The following was my favorite quote over there. If you can ignore the juvenile grammatical style, it’s really very humorous:

Look man. The sheeple, aka the American public, are very short attention spaned. This whole thing was done to boost the sheeple's morale. This thing will be talked into the ground...image after image after image will be shown of this guy. Now, about a month or so down the road, the nukes and other "WMDs" will be found. Cycle repeats...for another month or so. By then, its summer time and the sheeple are outdoors, etc. Another round of tax cuts will by then have been injected into the economy and everything will be hunky dory. Fall 04, getting nearer to elections...OBL will be caught. Repeat until grand climax of presidential election. "Bush lead us to victory." "All his critics were wrong."

So Sadam’s caught, the WMDs are found, Osama’s caught, tax cuts for everybody, a booming economy’s in full swing and the “ignorant sheeple” will be snowed into thinking everything’s hunky dory?!?! I guess we should all be upset by our continuing failure to be loved by the French. He ends it with:

Its actually following some sort of Hollywood script if you really look at it...

Yeah, one with a happy ending, as long as you're not the guy who wrote that.

[MissAmericanPie]

Heads up Sami, Bush, Rumsfield, and Blair will be tried when you think your big enough to jump up there and get the job done. Iraq is a conquered enemy state, we will leave, if and when we get darn good and ready to, and not a second before, and maybe N E V E R.

You want to know what the average American thinks Sami, we think our government is being much to nice to a nation of backward zealots that need to see the bottoms of our boots more than they need to see an out stretched hand. Keep up your moronic arrogance and we average Americans may convince our government yet that they need to plant a boot firmly in your backsides.

We have decided we like Iraq, it's location is perfect for several US airforce bases and military bases. We think we should keep it, not give it back. We may allow Iraqi's continue to live on our newly conqured territory, but only if they are very, very, nice and pro-American. Here's another thing to stick in your pipe and smoke. Terrorists don't scare us, they have not faired too well against us now have they.

We will kill them and keep killing them until there is no more to kill, how long that takes is of no consequence because we are deadly patient. So in closing Sami, we relate a statement to you that is credited to our President, "Who cares what you think?".

[cricket]

"Its actually following some sort of Hollywood script if you really look at it..." #'Yeah, one with a happy ending, as long as you're not the guy who wrote that'.

Wonder what his favorite movie is?

Truth is, he is probably a real loser and surely does not want others enjoying the 'good' that Life might be able to offer; and for sure not, if he has to earn it. Misery does not just want 'company'; it wants miserable company; and that misery is the MO of most of these anti-people.

DU, by name and content, fits this MO so well. . .and like Saddam in his hole; it is more dark minds/dark souls finding their comfort/refuge where no light can shine.

[tuckrdout]

"the 1963 CIA-backed coup that brought the Baathists to power"

Hmmm? Now, just who was in charge of the government at that time? Could it be, uh,.....DEMOCRATS?!!! Democrats in the White house and Democrats in the house. So, DEMOCRATS put the Baathists into power, and now they hate it that the Baathists are now out of power! Just burns their butts. They are all in mourning, like KKKatie Couric. They are in black today!

[Cicero]

Sami Ramadani was a political refugee

Yes, evidently a Communist of some sort. The Baathist party killed his friends, he says, yet he still can't see any difference between Saddam and the "tyrant, Paul Bremer."

Regretably Britain has a long history of giving political shelter to Communists, anarchists, bomb-throwers, and Islamists. They provided shelter for Marx and Engels and many another responsible for mass murder in the twentieth century. I'm not sure how much of it is naivete and how much of it is simply evil. Most other western countries seem eager to do the same.

[UCANSEE2]

The most notable thing about those who call themselves Democrats that I have noticed is a certain lack of maturity.

I believe that Maturity is defined by certain actions.

(1)Respect

(2)Morality

(3)Open-mindedness

.(4)Ability to admit mistakes

(5)Accepting Responsibility for one's own life.

It seems the common pattern is that the Democratic Party leaders attempt to pander to the vote of the immature. Those voters that want a government that (1)Tells them what to think, (2)Takes care of them ,(3)Gives them a strawdog to blame everything they don't like about their life, on.

Those people have been given George Bush to HATE, to BLAME, and they know as sure as the world turns, that if they just could get George Bush out of office, all their problems would be solved.

They don't seem able to step past that "Warm-fuzzy / We have nothing to worry about" state promised by their party leaders to see that their problems will still be there, and the only reason their leaders give them BUSH to blame, is so they can get elected and get that "warm-fuzzy" that comes from being IN CONTROL, IN POWER, I AM THE LEADER, ALL HAIL THE LEADER that immature people crave.

If they only understood that their leaders consider the democratic voting public as nothing more than a bunch of morons that they only have to pander to during election time, and after that, the hell with them, TIME TO PARTY!

If those who vote democratic only realized.......

[flicker]

I have seen more and more of this rythmn from the liberal drum beaters. They have taken impact after impact from Bush's successes and now are looking at "what else can go wrong?". Maybe the DOW will top 10,000 or the catch Saddam, etc.
They have turned now to take their worse case senarios and show them as preplanned political schedules. On C-Span last week they had predections for 2004 and one of the leftist experts insinuated Bush already knew Saddam and Ben Laden's whereabouts but were managing their capture for political puposes. I think this will be the coming spin from the left.

[Naspino]

these peole are truly of a lesser mind.

I think it went on to say: "Just wait what and see how happy the stoopid sheeple are when Bush cures cancer... those stoopid sheeple."

LOL

[agenda_express]

Likewise, freedom of speech refers to the right of a US citizen to have political discourse without interference from the government. Nothing is said about public pressure or humiliation!!