A just solution: military intervention
By
Sama Hadad
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Published: openDemocracy
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.
