By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
July 30, 2003
A week ago Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay were cornered and killed in a shoot-out with the American military in Mosul. Since then much of the media has complained that they were not captured instead of being shot dead. Anti-war newspapers like the Toronto Star in Canada gleefully headline each and every American soldier killed in Iraq while angrily condemning any American victory such as finding and eliminating two psychopathic killers: “If deception and unilateralism characterized America's war on Iraq, then naïveté, incompetence and, increasingly, desperation mark its shaky occupation of that troubled land. The killings of Saddam Hussein's sons, the exhibition of grisly photos of their corpses and the macabre reconstruction of their shattered bodies for public display are only the latest indices of the quagmire America has got itself into.”
Really now? Why, do you suppose, it is it culturally correct to view the dead body of a friend or relative at or before their funeral but such a terrible and politically incorrect thing to prove to the skeptical Iraqi public and a worldwide network of anti-American journalists, who seemed unperturbed during 35 years of lies, invasions, mass murders via chemical warfare, that the regime of Saddam Hussein has ended? Is there no purpose in viewing the bodies of the dead?
Actually, it is a custom that is designed to help people understand that the end really has come. Some people react more quickly than others. For example, a reader forwarded to me an up-close report written by a reserve Judge Advocate General officer, LTC Mike Sawyers, who was not at all pleased about being in Iraq on active duty trying to help a group of people who were trying to kill Americans. Mike provided an eyewitness account following the deaths of Sadaam's sons that America should have the opportunity to read:
I was a teen-ager when World War II ended and we received the news that Adolf Hitler was dead. The war was over, we knew, because Hitler was dead. So, we were out in the streets cheering – not because a man was dead, but because his death marked the end of the war. He was what it was all about. The confused reporters of the world notwithstanding, the Iraqis better than anyone else know what the deaths of Uday and Qusay mean. It means they no longer have to worry about being raped or killed by them. Of course those who did nothing about or who supported the Hussein regime are not happy about this. After all, many, including the United Nations, benefited by having the Hussein regime in power in Baghdad.
“You may read many things about the recent deaths of Sadaam's two sons here in Iraq. Let me tell you, as an eyewitness, what occurred here in Baghdad. About 2130 hours (9:30 p.m. for you civilians) last night, about six of us were huddled around a DVD player watching a movie. Sustained, small arms gunfire was heard outside. We all put on our flak vests and helmets, grabbed our weapons, and headed outside. What we saw was amazing.“The entire down town Baghdad area skies was full of red and yellow tracer gun fire. It looked like the 4th of July celebration we had all missed a few weeks ago. The use of weapons in this manner, for the Iraqis, is an expression of celebration. The level of this celebration was obviously intense for they had just heard the news that the two sons were dead and their reign of terror was over, for good. The celebration lasted well into the night.
“As mayor of this installation near the Baghdad International Airport, I employee about 18 local nationals to work on our electricity, plumbing and to do manual labor. This morning, they were obviously tired from no sleep, but very happy, they had been celebrating all night. They offered their supervisors extra locally made bread and several kinds of fruit, their way of saying thank you from them and their families.
“In one short day, the atmosphere and attitude of those locals around us has changed, for the positive. For those of you or your colleagues who still question why we are here, they should have the opportunity, like I have, to look into the eyes of a people who were truly repressed and now sense that their liberation is really at hand. In the last war, the U.S. let them down by not ousting the dictator.
“In this war, they did not trust us because their tormenters were still at large and they were not sure that the military would close the deal. Yesterday, the military proved that this liberation is for real.
“If you are asked why we are still here, yesterday's action is the reason. We are still here because the mission that we started is not over, but it will be soon. If you think our presence here is not warranted, you have the misfortune of not being able to see the faces of a liberated people.
“I have complained about our presence here. I am going to stop doing that now because last night gave me renewed hope that our actions are having a tangible affect on the lives the Iraqi people. I am not naive enough to believe that the violence is over and that the resistance is dead. Instead, every American fighting in this country has seen with their own eyes the fruits of their sacrifice. And for that, I am proud to be here.
“Take care and I hope by Christmas to be e-mailing from home.
For example, in December 2000, before the hated George W. Bush came into the U.S. White House, there was $12 Billion in the New York branch of BNP-Paribas, the French bank that “handled” the UN’s Oil for Peace program. Naturally, most of the billions were used for…ah-h …UN and French “expenses,” Saddam’s war machine and multiple palaces, not for food and medicines for Iraqis.
And you were wondering why they were so upset that the Americans invaded Iraq? Follow the Iraqi oil money. Contrary to the incessant propaganda by the French, the Germans, the Canadians and the Arabs – it is not in US banks.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com