Ali over at A Free Iraq has an interesting post today where he writes about religion and the state of Iraq in the past and in the present:
I see Iraq at that time, like most Arab/Muslim nations now, like a ship led by a blind deaf and brutal sailor that managed to keep the ship safe by the fact that all ships with real sailors managed to avoid hitting his ship while he was leading the ship without having any course or plan depending only on his intuition.
Unless a disaster happened, passengers would not even dare to complain. Most of them actually trusted the sailor out of fear, helplessness and because everyone said he was smart and they could not believe that such a strong calm elegantly dressed had no clue what he was doing. He must have a plan, any plan as it simply can’t be possible that someone reached the top without having some worthy qualifications.
But in Iraq the disaster happened and the passengers discovered that their sailor was actually a blind deaf and stupid piece of shit, and many of them revolted. And while he managed to crush the revolt he could not control their minds anymore. They saw his truth and this made them scared and worried about their future in this ship. Many decide to leave it before it finally sinks. Those who couldn’t or didn’t want to for one reason or another started to look for answers, and they looked outside their ship.
Before that time we used to get our news from the Iraqi media mainly. After that, the vast majority of Iraqis started to listen to Monte Carlo radio, BBC and VOA to try and find out what’s going to happen to them. Even Ba’athists and Arab nationalists were doing that, as they realized that their fate was going to be decided outside Iraq by powers that have decided not to avoid a conflict with the mad leader anymore and were just waiting for the right moment to get rid of him once and for all.
After Saddam was toppled most Iraqis took a sigh of relief, “Now finally someone sane is going to run things here”. They did think of America as a sane power totally replacing a mad one, at least for a while. I say they were relieved not just because they got rid of Saddam, as that meant incridible joy not relief. It’s because it was scary to think that your fate is in the hands of an insane man while you can’t do anything and you’re not even used to such a huge responsibility.
But the Americans did not want to replace Saddam. They did not want to run things the way they wanted without sharing the responsibility with the people, even if they thought their management could fix things and even if this was for a transitional phace.
An iron evil fist was gone but it was not replaced by an “iron good fist” as many Iraqis wished, and things collapsed in a place that has been ruled with extreme force for decades when people were given freedom.This is one of the main reasons why many Iraqis were and still are disappointed with America. No, these Iraqis do not hate America as most like to think, they’re just disappointed with her for not fitting the image they had in their minds; the just tyrant that should’ve taken full responsibility for some time until they could find their own just tyrant who would make their life much better without forcing them to share a burden and a responsibility they never thought it was among their duties as citizens.
Much more where that came from, check it out.
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