Iraqi Voices
March
20, 2003
A
just solution: military intervention
Sama Hadad
Saddam’s
long history of brutality and crimes would take volumes
to go through. Three words sum it up: two million victims.
Two million Iraqis, by the most conservative estimates,
have been slaughtered by Saddam and his vicious regime.
He has wiped out thousands of villages, hundreds of towns,
used chemical weapons on his own people, and has subjected
the entire nation to cruel, sustained oppression. His
continuous trail of murder must be stopped now, for every
day that passes by under Saddam’s rule is a humanitarian
crisis.
“Leave
it up to the Iraqi people to liberate themselves”
is a suggestion both insulting and naïve. The people
of Iraq have struggled alone for three decades against
the tyranny of Saddam. Over half a million Iraqis have
heroically attempted to remove Saddam, but have tragically
paid with their lives. There is no question about the
bravery and sacrifice of the Iraqi people, as they have
not sat down and accepted Saddam’s brutality.
Unfortunately,
history has shown that Iraqis, despite their most noble
efforts, have been unable to get rid of Saddam and therefore
require external assistance.
As
for the other ‘alternatives’ of getting rid
of Saddam: if they were realistic and workable, they would
have already been attempted and put to the test. In fact,
the only realistic method of getting rid of Saddam is
through external military intervention. This is the only
way and it is a just way.
Yet,
the word ‘war’ is misleading. War implies two
sides fighting, and (in this case) resistance on the Iraqi
side. The truth of the matter is that Iraqis inside the
country, in the heart of the battle – and despite
having lived through the Iran-Iraq war and the 1991 Gulf
war – have been praying for military intervention.
They know that it is their only hope, the only escape
from Saddam’s genocide. People in Iraq have been
counting down the hours for the beginning of intervention
which will pave the road to democracy.
Any
attack by allied troops attack on such targets as the
presidential palaces, Saddam’s security buildings,
and Ba’ath party headquarters, is confirmation to
the Iraqi people that Saddam and his regime are the essential
target of this military campaign.
Such
targeting symbolically weakens Saddam and empower the
Iraqi people, removing their feeling of being alone in
their struggle against Saddam. Finally, after decades
of fighting without external help, Iraqis are now being
joined by US and British troops. Their long, painful,
silent struggle is ending, with Saddam and his regime
at last becoming history.
Standing
against the only method of removing Saddam has never helped
the people of Iraq. The best way to help them now is to
campaign for a genuine democracy to be established after
the dictator is overthrown.
