Iraqis' fight is `about Arab dignity'-Battle against occupation starting
Excerpts from
ROBERT FISK's article in The Independent
"When we have our soldiers at the front," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had told us all a few hours earlier,
"you don't expect us to line them up for you to shoot at, do you?" We had laughed merrily at this little jibe but I didn't laugh now. Surely Saddam's praetorian guard could not be sitting this out in the desert, tanks abreast of each other, soldiers lying out in the open?
A senior Iraqi business executive had his headquarters nearby and wanted to explain how slender was the victory that the Americans were claiming.
"Throughout history, Iraq has been called Mesopotamia," he said. "
This means: The land between the two rivers. So unless you are between the two rivers, this means you are not in Iraq. (U.S. commander) General Franks should know this."
"Can you imagine the effect on the Arabs if Iraq gets out of this war intact?" he asked. "
It took just five days for all the Arabs to be defeated by Israel in the 1967 war. And already we Iraqis have been fighting the all-powerful Americans for five days and still we have held on to all of our cities and will not surrender. Just imagine what would happen if Iraq surrendered? What chance would the Syrian leadership have against the demands of Israel? What chance would the Palestinians have of negotiating a fair deal with the Israelis? The Americans don't care about giving the Palestinians a fair deal. So why should they want to give the Iraqis a fair deal?"
This was no member of the Baath party speaking. This was a man with degrees from English universities.
One of his colleagues made an even more cogent point.
"Our soldiers know they will not get a fair deal from the Americans," he said.
"It's important that they know this. We may not like our regime. But we fight for our country. The Russians did not like Stalin but they fought under him against the German invaders. We have a long history of fighting the colonial powers, especially you British. You claim you are coming to `liberate' us. But you don't understand. What is happening now is that we are starting a war of liberation against the Americans and the British."
The businessman wanted to talk of Saddam.
"We Arabs care about dignity. Half of (T.E.) Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom' is about Arab dignity. In our lands, populism won over democracy for historical reasons. Saddam has provided societal safety. I am safe, providing I do not confront the regime. Saddam may be very severe against political dissidents but he is also very severe on criminals or anyone who is aggressive with us. That includes the Americans."
Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan yesterday talked about the "perfidious aggression and invasion" and demanded that the Arab states use an oil boycott against the United States and Britain, that at least they withdraw their ambassadors from Washington and London. Some hope.
Mohammed Mahdi Saleh, the trade minister, accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of bowing to U.S. pressure to prevent ships under the oil-for-food program from landing in Iraq. He insisted the Iraqi government was sending 20 trucks loaded with flour to Basra every day but British shellfire there had set ablaze a warehouse holding flour.
There were other worrying stories from the south. How, for one, did the 100 Iraqis lying along 15 kilometres of roadway north of Nasariya come to die? A French correspondent smelled burned flesh as he passed them but could not tell if they were soldiers or civilians.
Iraqis' fight is `about Arab dignity'-Battle against occupation starting
Excerpts from
ROBERT FISK's article in The Independent
"When we have our soldiers at the front," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had told us all a few hours earlier,
"you don't expect us to line them up for you to shoot at, do you?" We had laughed merrily at this little jibe but I didn't laugh now. Surely Saddam's praetorian guard could not be sitting this out in the desert, tanks abreast of each other, soldiers lying out in the open?
A senior Iraqi business executive had his headquarters nearby and wanted to explain how slender was the victory that the Americans were claiming.
"Throughout history, Iraq has been called Mesopotamia," he said. "
This means: The land between the two rivers. So unless you are between the two rivers, this means you are not in Iraq. (U.S. commander) General Franks should know this."
"Can you imagine the effect on the Arabs if Iraq gets out of this war intact?" he asked. "
It took just five days for all the Arabs to be defeated by Israel in the 1967 war. And already we Iraqis have been fighting the all-powerful Americans for five days and still we have held on to all of our cities and will not surrender. Just imagine what would happen if Iraq surrendered? What chance would the Syrian leadership have against the demands of Israel? What chance would the Palestinians have of negotiating a fair deal with the Israelis? The Americans don't care about giving the Palestinians a fair deal. So why should they want to give the Iraqis a fair deal?"
This was no member of the Baath party speaking. This was a man with degrees from English universities.
One of his colleagues made an even more cogent point.
"Our soldiers know they will not get a fair deal from the Americans," he said.
"It's important that they know this. We may not like our regime. But we fight for our country. The Russians did not like Stalin but they fought under him against the German invaders. We have a long history of fighting the colonial powers, especially you British. You claim you are coming to `liberate' us. But you don't understand. What is happening now is that we are starting a war of liberation against the Americans and the British."
The businessman wanted to talk of Saddam.
"We Arabs care about dignity. Half of (T.E.) Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom' is about Arab dignity. In our lands, populism won over democracy for historical reasons. Saddam has provided societal safety. I am safe, providing I do not confront the regime. Saddam may be very severe against political dissidents but he is also very severe on criminals or anyone who is aggressive with us. That includes the Americans."
Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan yesterday talked about the "perfidious aggression and invasion" and demanded that the Arab states use an oil boycott against the United States and Britain, that at least they withdraw their ambassadors from Washington and London. Some hope.
Mohammed Mahdi Saleh, the trade minister, accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of bowing to U.S. pressure to prevent ships under the oil-for-food program from landing in Iraq. He insisted the Iraqi government was sending 20 trucks loaded with flour to Basra every day but British shellfire there had set ablaze a warehouse holding flour.
There were other worrying stories from the south. How, for one, did the 100 Iraqis lying along 15 kilometres of roadway north of Nasariya come to die? A French correspondent smelled burned flesh as he passed them but could not tell if they were soldiers or civilians.
