Walid Phares writes about a recent conversation between two Iraqi brothers:
Hassan: So, Majid, what?s going on in the world today?
Majid: Well, we are still terrified by those terror attacks by Zarqawi (may Allah take him away). As usual, he killed civilians, kids, women, and elderly..
Hassan: (deep breath). That is our destiny. We have no choice but to resist the Terrorists what ever is the price. For there is no higher price than the one we paid under Saddam Hussein. We will suffer all what the terrorists would do, but we will not return to what was here before April 2003. The most important thing that happened to us was the removal of the monster. I can?t even think back and imagine the days of massacres, torture and oppression. Let all the Zarqawi of the world come here. Ahlan wa sahlan (welcome in Arabic), because eventually no one want his regime of Taliban. Not in Iraq at least..
Majid: But there is one thing I don?t understand..
Hassan: What is it Majid?
Majid: Those people in London and America
Hassan: What?s with them ya (means O) Majid?
Majid: they are organizing these marches..
Hassan: What?s wrong with that? These are democracies Majid. And in democracies you demonstrate, express yourself say whatever you want. That?s why we?re struggling here. That?s what we want here..That?s why we?re dying..
Majid: But ya Hassan, these demonstrations are not calling for democracy..
Hassan: What are they calling for then?
Majid: They say they want Peace..
Hassan: Azeem (great), we all want peace. Where is the problem?
Majid: They say they want to stop the War in Iraq..
Hassan: Tamam (perfect). Isn?t it what we all want in Iraq? Aren?t we sick and tired of this War, this terrorism?
Majid: Yes Hassan, its true. But that is not what these people want.
Hassan: I don?t understand ya Majid. Don?t they want peace and the end of War in Iraq?
Majid: That?s what they say but..
Hassan: But what Majid?..
Majid: they say they want the US troops back immediately to America..
Hassan: like this? And to abandon the Iraqi people alone against Zarqawi, Iran and the Terrorists coming from Syria and Saudi Arabia? That?s what these demonstrators want?
Majid: yes. They say it is not America?s business to be in Iraq
Hassan: But it is we Iraqis who want them to stay and help us..our government is asking them to help us. What?s with those demonstrators?
Majid: They are saying our government is not legitimate. That is was formed under American occupation..
Hassan: but we elected our government. Didn?t they see 8.5 million people voting, including old women?
Majid: They don?t care. They say the Iraqi people are fighting US and coalition forces. They say the insurgents are the Iraqi people..
Hassan So Zarqawi?s Terrorists are the Iraqi people and the 9 million voters are what?
Majid: They don?t talk about the Iraqi voters?
Hassan: How about the Afghani voters?
Majid: They think the Taliban are more legitimate..
…Hassan: so what kind of peace are they calling for?
Majid: immediate withdrawal of US forces
Hassan: But that is war, a bigger war..Zarqawi, al Sadr and others will wage bigger wars
Majid: They say it won?t be their business. Besides it was Bush and Blair?s problem..Had the invasion not taken place, there wouldn?t have been an insurgency.
Hassan: and what would have happen had no invasion taken place?
Majid: nothing, peace.
Hassan: so before the removal of Saddam Hussein there was peace?
Majid: they say there were no pictures of bloodshed on TV
Hassan: so there was no bloodshed in Iraq before the toppling of Saddam?
Majid: They say Saddam was no angel, but there are many dictators around the world? And why is it up to the US to pick one dictator and remove it?
Hassan: but he had killed 400,000 Shiites and 200,000 Kurds plus another 100,000 Sunnis, ChaldoAssyrians and others..That wasn?t enough to intervene?
Majid: They say the US should not change regimes..
Hassan: how about Haiti? Didn?t the US change the Cedras regime? How about Milosevic? Wasn?t he brought to justice? How about Noriega?
Majid: they say these dictators were oppressing their people..
Hassan: and Saddam wasn?t?
…Hassan: I really don?t understand these people. They say they want war to cease, and they encourage the Terrorists to win it. They say they want peace, and they wish the dictator and the radicals to reign on us. They say they are progressive and seculars, and they allow the fundamentalists to massacre us. They say they promote liberties and they want ours to vanish. They say they demonstrate for the Iraqi people and their actions are aimed at plunging the Iraqi people under terror and oppression. What on earth do they want with us?
…Hassan: Did they demonstrate against their government on June 7, 1944? They sent their sons to liberate Europe: 4,000 died in 12 hours in Normandy. Another 6,000 died on one island in the Pacific. They brought freedom to nations around the world. Is our freedom a lesser one? The Baathist Hitler massacred One million from our people: Their soldiers gave us freedom, saved us from a genocide. I understand that parents suffer for the loss of their children. But is there a draft in America?
Majid: No it is a voluntary recruitment
Hassan: Why do they go to the army then? They know that they are risking being killed.
Majid: I don?t know. But one of their activists, Cindy Sheehan, lost her son in Iraq and is leading the campaign against Bush now.
Hassan: Was she against his decision to join the armed forces?
Majid Apparently yes. That?s what she says.
Hassan: Did she try to convince him not to enroll?
Majid: Yes, that?s what she said.
Hassan: So her son refused to obey her
Majid: Yes
Hassan: so he disagreed with her
Majid: yes
Hassan: so he had other views
Majid: well he joined the army, and she didn?t want him to join.
Hassan: was she against the War in Iraq before he joined?
Majid: she was against the removal of Saddam.
Hassan: and now she is acting as a mother who lost her child who refused to obey her and was killed in a war she opposed?
Majid: yes. She considers the war that liberated us a war that killed her son. She was against regime change in Iraq. I also heard she criticized Bush, Chirac and Blair for removing the Syrians from Lebanon.
Hassan: why is she against our peoples? freedoms?
Majid: she says removing Saddam wasn?t a good cause
Hassan: did she ever meet with Iraqi mothers who lost their children, husbands and babies?
Majid: not that I know of.
Hassan: so stopping the genocide in Iraq is not enough of a noble cause for her?
Majid: she and her movement says no.
…Hassan: If Mrs. Sheehan was elected as President of the United States, not George Bush or Kerry, and she would be informed that 400,000 sons and daughters were in the mass graves in Iraq. That 8,000 Kurds were gassed to death; what would she do? Would she order US troops to rescue the survivors or not? Would she be willing to use the resources of the US to save more children from Saddam or not?
Majid: If the American people would have elected her as a President and it was established that Saddam had murdered close to a million people, a majority of Americans would have asked any President to intervene.
Hassan: Even militarily?
Majid: well that?s what they did in Bosnia and Kosovo, and it wasn?t Bush. It was Clinton. The American people intervened in Europe twice to save nations from genocide. Close to one million US lives were lost for what was perceived as a noble cause: Unless Arab blood is not considered worth saving.
Hassan: so Majid, you?re telling me that the lady who is protesting the American presence in Iraq today ?if elected as a President- would have sent troops to remove Saddam?
Majid: If she was informed by her Administration about the genocide, and the pictures from Iraq?s mass graves would have been aired by CNN, as they were in the 1990s from the Balkans, she would have sent the troops. Unless the American people would have abruptly changed his values and political culture in three years (2000 to 2003)
Much more where that came from here.
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