An Iraqi, Ali Al-Zahid, expresses his gratitude for the efforts of the United States to establish freedom in Iraq. He is frank when he speaks of the miscalculations of the US and his own people, primarily the inability to anticipate the depths of evil and depravity to which muslim terrorists have descended.
"Could anyone have imagined back then that the enemies of the new Iraq would blow themselves up in marketplaces, in front of schools, at funerals - almost anywhere - killing dozens, along with themselves, each time? Could anyone have expected that people transporting flour would have their heads cut off on live television?"
It's not that we're particularly naive, it's that we're not evil. Even when escapees told the allied forces of the horrors being committed in German extermination camps they were not believed at first. Our soldiers were not prepared for the horrors of WWII because no one in their right minds could imagine what the Japanese and German forces were capable of doing.
Let's face it, before the intifada, would anyone believe that a suicide bomber would walk into a peaceful domestic scene and unleash an explosion designed to maim and kill civilians? Could Dan Rather or Katie Couric have anticipated seeing Nick Berg's head sawed off?
Of course not. Any civilized person is revulsed; we abhor such savage imagery and consign those who don't to prisons and mental institutions.
"Many mistakes have been made in these three years. The political parties in Iraq and their representatives demonstrate on a regular basis that they are incapable of uniting the country and leading it. Neither have our American partners been able to keep from making major mistakes."
But we've been there before. British military historian Major Kenneth J. Macksey, MC, (1923-2005) stated: "Wars and combats without mistakes are unknown. " Our own commanders tell us time and again that battle plans rarely survive the first shot.
"There is a major difference between Iraq before April 9, 2003, and Iraq today— now there is hope, there is the determination to win this war. We continue to believe in this new Iraq because we know that, despite the problems, Iraq is developing, and that despite the madness, there is progress. The Iraqi people are beginning to understand that they have rights in the new Iraq, and they are starting to demand them as well. They understand that they are no longer slaves to political powers, but that politicians are supposed to serve them."
Things are rough in Iraq right now. Even though much of the nation is relatively quiet, there are problems in Baghdad and other areas. Iran and Syria are desperate to stop the creation of a true democracy in Iraqi and are trying to foment a civil war. Some Iraqi bloggers say it has already begun.
"We have the United States on our side. We know that we can win this struggle. Our greatest worry is that we will run out of partners in the middle of the final, pivotal push."
There are deeper, darker implications to this. There is more than one battle ground; there is the bloody struggle in Iraq, the machinations of Iran and Syria, and the continuing ideological war in Washington, DC.
"The future of the Middle East will be decided in Iraq. The way America is perceived in the future will be determined in Iraq. The choice is between supporting this new generation a few years longer, and winning a grateful long-term ally, or betraying this generation of Iraqis which believes in, and risks its life every day for, the American dream of democracy."
Not only the future of democracy in the Near East, but the fortunes of American political parties will also be decided in Iraq.
(The above quoted article was written by Ali Al-Zahid, a member of the new Iraquna think tank. Born in 1978, he was imprisoned in 1982 after his father made critical statements against the Baath regime. He lives in Europe.)
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