A Post to End/Start the Year
29/12/2006 early morning.
Last night I couldn't sleep.
Painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio XVIth century.I felt like they are going to execute Saddam Hussein from some bits and pieces of news on TV.
I remembered years ago when I told a friend that Saddam was a dictator, Mohsein was coming back from Iraq (with a group of artists and film makers) to support the Iraqi people during the American embargo on Iraq, he replied, with that glow in his eyes, that Iraqis do like Saddam Hussein very much and he is considered as a great leader in his country. It took me years to understand the charismatic Saddam Hussein .
Throughout the years I would question every Iraqi I meet about Saddam Hussein and I got very diverse point of views. Some accused him of torturing their family. Some others used his existence to get political asylum in Europe and America the same way some many Copts claimed religious asylum in the west since Gamal Abdel Nasser times. A process that I understood afterwards defined as brain drain.
I cannot remember a single Iraqi talking good about Saddam except some interviewed on TV living in Iraq and willing to starve and suffer for continuing living in Iraq! May be I did not meet his supporters because I never had the chance to know Iraq during Saddam regime.
I guess it must have been like in Cuba were you will only benefit the generosity of the administration only if they frame you and know that you will support their cause.
It is legitimate if the system and its institutions are weak and leaking.
To get back to the point, I do believe today that the Iraqi leader was not what the media portrayed of him. {{Like I do believe I have to know Cuba before the death of Fidel Castro}}
Today, I do not trust the so-called modern democratic regimes as people choose between the bad and the ugly. And, republics being inherited. Administrators in a way or another are replacing leaders.
Peacefully or aggressively.
These thoughts take me back to 1990 when I was enrolled as an Egyptian reserve officer.
My division had to go and liberate Kuwait from the so called Iraqi occupation. (Aren't we actually occupied ?!) Different reasons were given for Egyptians to kill Iraqis and get killed by friendly American fire. Reason 1: to protect the holly land of the Mecca (Saudi Arabia).
Reason 2: the Americans were paying good money # 150 $/day for the officer and 50$/day for the soldier. (These reasons were not good enough for me and, I would like to remaining silent as anything I might say can and will be taken against me in a court of f****n emergency and military law. So much to say regarding the subject!).
The reason that Saddam was a dictator was not the issue, as we knew that Saddam was not different than the rest of Arab leaders (see non-Arabs too) and that he was promised Kuwait as a re compensation for his long war against Iran. Iraq needed a port to export its oil . I do not need to mention that if Iraq has succeeded to benefit from its resources the Saddam strategy was to have the ability to be a strong nation, gather all other Arabs around him and, get rid of the Israeli occupation. I personally think he would have been able to do it but this remains fiction.
Egypt since the Camp David peace treaty could not play the same fighter role, it replaced fighting ability by huge bank accounts making its government rich and its people depending on US aids. The result of which is the today's corrupt system and strong Muslim brotherhood organisms holding the civil society by its balls. A cohabitation with the devil.
Today, I have seen a strong Iraqi leader walking on his feet to be hanged and an Egyptian president leaning on the wall during the Eid pray.
A courageous man that, gave his life to death as a great warrior and, lived fighting for a cause. A leader representing a nation dream of getting rid of that spine called Israel implanted in its heart.
On the other hand an Egyptian president that did not even comment on the death of his Iraqi colegue but only said that it will escalate violence. A president that says the first thing he does when he wakes up is watch the news on CNN and BBC before having his cabinet meeting. A president that watches the news like you and me and doesn't contribute in it.
Egypt # Life can go on as long as life is still possible!
Only the ones dying do give their lives, see Palestinians .
Today the execution of Saddam Hussein is the execution of the last Arab symbol of dignity.
We can still apply for a green card lottery here if you live in Egypt, you may win if you have the required level of education and proper bank account! Than you will grow up, have bacon and eggs for breakfast, join the army here, they seem to have nice helicopters, come back for a road map killing your brothers and sisters, if they are still alive and, if you are still able to recognize them.
If you see your enemy, you are already dead. But, Saddam Hussein when he saw Donald, he did not at that time know that the enemy has amnesia, with well known organic or functional causes . He had others in mind in his power struggle like the case of Mubarak accusing Iran for being behind terrorism in Egypt.
I believe that Saddam is more important than Yasser Arafat. Saddam is comparable to Gamal Abdel Nasser. Saddam will probably remain as the last symbol of a moderate Islamic Arab resistance. And, we can fall in extremism! My heart did not stop aching for two days.
I do not believe in God, otherwise I would have wished Blessing of his soul.
But I do believe in immortality, and I think he will remain immortal in every human soul.
As for the American administration, thanks but no thanks for making my New Year's Eve, Eid and Hanukkah.
01/01/2007 Late night
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