Was it Saddam who betrayed the
Arabs, or the Arabs who betrayed Iraq?
By Rannie Amiri
The image of a disheveled Saddam
Hussein after his capture by American troops left many in the Arab
world bewildered and dejected, while others rejoiced and celebrated
the apprehension of one of the most brutal dictators the Middle East
has seen in recent decades. The former group far outweighed the
later in numbers, if not decibels.
A collective sense of humiliation
befell many Arabs, not only in the way Saddam was seized - dragged
from a hole in the ground, without the least bit of resistance or
willingness to fight - but also the perceived indignity to which he
was subjected during the filming of a perfunctory medical exam.
Appearing more like the Anti-Claus than Santa Claus, the
disappointment was almost palpable as Arabs struggled to convince
themselves the images they were seeing were not of the Saddam which
they had grown accustomed. The fact that it was Americans who caught
him only served to dispel any equivocation marking this yet another
shameful period in modern Arab history.
Contrast this with the Iraqi
reaction, particularly among the Shia and Kurdish populations, as
well as their communities in other parts of the Middle East and
abroad, ecstatic that a true mass murderer was finally in custody.
The incongruity of these emotions was obvious, and noted by the
media. What, then, is the basis for such discordant views regarding
the person of Saddam Hussein?
First, it is important to
appreciate the truly appalling details of the nearly quarter-century
rule of Saddam in Iraq. The United States estimates that
approximately 300,000 Iraqis disappeared during this time (not
including the 375,000 killed during the Iraq-Iran war), while
international human rights groups put the number closer to 500,000,
and Iraqis themselves estimate it to be around one million.
Regardless which figure is deemed the most accurate, there is no
doubt that the sheer magnitude of the brutality in Iraq has not been
rivaled by any other Arab country in recent times. Indeed, Iraq was
more than just a police state. It was a state in which the precepts
of genocide against its Shia Muslim Arab and Kurdish citizens were
actively implemented. After the first Gulf War in 1991, during the
uprisings in southern Iraq alone, 100,000 Shia Arabs were massacred
and entire villages leveled by Saddam's forces. The silence in the
Arab world, from the people and their leaders alike, was deafening.
When it became clear that the no
weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq during the
current conflict, the abuse of the Iraqi people by Saddam was used
as a justification for removing him from power. It was, however, the
United States and European countries such as France, Germany and
Russia, who ultimately provided Saddam Hussein with the financial
means, technology, and armaments to commit these atrocities. The
hypocrisy of the Western powers does not need to be elaborated upon
here. It is important to recognize, though, that this same duplicity
applies equally to many Arab countries.
For example, Kuwaitis breathed a
huge sigh of relief after Saddam's arrest. Notwithstanding, it was
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations who were the primary
backers of Iraq in its war with Iran, a war that Saddam started, and
which claimed nearly one million lives. The previously cordial
relationship of Saddam with the kings, emirs, and princes of these
nations are still fresh in many Iraqi minds. In Jordan too, it was
King Hussein who first gave sanctuary to Saddam's son-in-laws
Hussein and Saddam Kamal after they defected from Iraq in 1995.
Ordinary Iraqis were left wondering why they were not arrested for
crimes against humanity for their roles in brutally suppressing the
1991 uprisings to which was alluded earlier. Not surprisingly,
Saddam's two daughters are now living quite comfortably in an Amman
palace courtesy of King Abdullah, not too dissimilar to their former
palaces in Iraq, although with fewer people starving at their gates.
Palestinians under Israeli
occupation still exhort Iraq's former leader, not realizing that
many Iraqis probably would have freely traded life under Israeli
occupation to that of the constant state of fear under which they
lived during Saddam's rule. The Palestinian territories are unique
as the only place in the Arab world where Saddam's pictures are
still proudly displayed.
The etiology of the dichotomy of
feelings among Arabs regarding the Iraqi dictator is
multi-factorial. To some degree, it is split along old sectarian
religious lines. The Shia throughout the Arab and Muslim world were
keenly aware of the plight of Iraq's Shia and the desecration of the
holy sites in Kerbala and Najaf. In addition, they were often
regarded in their own countries (primarily the Gulf) as a potential
fifth column in the Iraq-Iran war and subject to discrimination.
Saddam was thus successful in not only stoking the fears of Iraq's
Sunni Muslim Arabs, but those of his neighbors as well. Playing upon
anti-Iranian, anti-Shia, pan-Arab sentiments in a Sunni dominated
region proved to be quite effective in maintaining his support by
the greater Arab nation.
Saddam was also adept in the
promulgation of his feigned support of the Palestinian cause,
starting with the launch of a few Scud missiles in Israel's
direction during the first Gulf War, and continuing with payments to
families of suicide bombers afterwards.
All of these factors, some based on
prejudicial Arab feelings and others on token anti-Israeli
hyperbole, will now fall on deaf ears. With Saddam Hussein in
custody, these same Arab nations must be answerable for their past
or present support of his regime, and by extension, to the tacit
endorsement of his internal repression. If Saddam faces trial in
Iraq, as many expect he will, and is found guilty and sentenced to
death, as many believe he should be, this will likewise be the
verdict of those Arab countries who conveniently overlooked Saddam's
depravity in Iraq in paltry exchange for the comfort of remaining on
their thrones in case of the leaders, or the longing to hear the
empty rhetoric of another self-styled Saladin, in the case of the
masses.
In the end, it was not Saddam
Hussein who betrayed the Arabs by his cowardly capture. Rather, it
has been the Arabs who betrayed Iraq and its people over the last
two and a half decades by their silence in the face of crimes
against humanity. With the Shia Arabs and Kurds, comprising a total
of eighty-percent of Iraq's population, to figure prominently in any
future government, it is high time the Arabs face the Iraqi people
of all religious persuasions and ethnicities, lower their heads in
humility, and ask for their forgiveness.
Rannie Amiri is an observer, commentator,
and exponent of issues dealing with the Arab and Islamic worlds.
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