Using Iraq Watch Update: Iraqi Bloggers Speak Out On The British General Election

Labour Friends of Iraq launched 'Using Iraq Watch' with the promise that when someone ran down the state of Iraq in a grotesquely overstated fashion in order to run up the state of their own electoral chances we would point this out. We gave three examples. An editorial in The Mail on Sunday (April 24) claimed Iraq was “worse as a result” of removing Saddam and hoped 'the issue' could “destroy Labour’s majority”. Peter Hitchens, also writing in the Mail on Sunday (April 24), argued Iraq was worse off, the January 30 Poll had been “more-or-less fraudulent and meaningless”, and "a new Saddam regime is already being created". The Liberal Democrat Deputy leader Menzies Campbell suggested (Observer 24 April) that Iraq was no better off as “the tyranny of Saddam Hussein has been replaced by the tyranny of the suicide bomber”.

Within a day we received three responses from pro-democratic Iraqi and Iraqi Kurd bloggers. Check out below what Iraqi Expat, Iraq the Model and Kurdo’s World had to say. We invite more Iraqi bloggers to get in touch. (AJ)

‘Iraqi Expat’ Sunday, April 24, 2005

How could life be better when...

Many people, including the Mail on Sunday and Peter Hitchens, claim that Iraq was better off under Saddam, that the war has brought poverty, destruction and death, that the elections were meaningless and fraudulent, and the funniest of all is that a new Saddam regime is being created.

While there are problems in Iraq today, most of these problems existed before the war too; the only difference is that it rarely got reported, no one dared to talk about it and it was much worse than it is now.

There are security problems in Iraq, created by many including those who made Iraq look secure and stable in the eyes of the world during Saddam’s rule; but were Iraqis really secure back then? If you think that when the security servicemen come to your house and wipe out your family is security, then Iraqis were secure! If you think that when the government terrorize people is security, then Iraqis were secure!

These people use shallow argument to attack policies and people they disagree with, to make political gains, and or to show their opposition. They are living in denial and will continue to do so because they can not accept change, even if that change is right. They choose to ignore facts and only see what the leftists mainstream media show. They choose to ignore the horrors that the Iraqis used to live by everyday under Saddam’s rule.

How could someone claim that life for Iraqis was better under Saddam, when Saddam killed so many Iraqis in cold blood and terrorized the rest?

How could it be better when a village like Halabja could get exterminated so easily?

How could it be better when hundred of thousands could get buried in mass graves?

How could it be better when you and your family could vanish from the face of the earth for criticizing Saddam or his family? How could it be better when you could be executed for laughing on a joke about Saddam? How could it be better when your daughter or sister could get raped by Uday because he felt like it and you can do nothing about it? How could it be better when you could get killed in front of your family for not giving way in the road to Saddam’s 20 years old nephew?

How could life be better when half a million child have to die because of Saddam’s pride and stupidity?

How could it be better when extravagant palaces and mosques get built while people starving? How could it be better when all these palaces serve three meals a day in case Saddam shows up, but had to throw it all away if he didn’t and not even the servants are allowed to eat that food? How could it be better then when you make $3 dollars a month after over 16 years of education? How could it be better when your life, your country and its wealth is owned by one family?

How could life be better when god (Saddam) is so brutal and unjust?

How could it be better when elections and referendums are won by 99.99%? How could it be better when a Baathist is looking over your shoulder to check that you ticked yes to Saddam? How could it be better when you can not elect the government you support? How could it be better when you are forced to demonstrate your love and loyalty to Saddam? How could it be better when you know all the above but can not complain about it or change it?

How could life be better when you have no hope?

Living hopelessly is much more destructive than any problem you see in Iraq today, and Iraqis were hopeless before the war. If you don’t see the possibility of a bright future for Iraq, if you have no hope today, then you must be either blind, short sighted or living in denial.

IRAQ THE MODEL, Monday, April 25, 2005

Same old argument, new inquisitors

I have received these two pieces (registration required) in an e mail last night, I read them (well, most of them actually) got pissed of, then I thought "why should I bother? It's just another piece of nonsense" so I forgot about them for a while until I saw them this morning again during my morning tour on blogs and I read Ahmed's response to it and I thought I could say a few words.

I think one of the most telling signs of ignorance is when someone pretends to know everything about a subject he's relatively clueless about. I really don't know exactly how informed the authors of these two pieces are about the situation in Iraq before and after the 9th of April but I'm positive that any common Iraqi with ordinary intelligence is way more informed.

There are actually a million stories I can tell to make a comparison between pre and post-Saddam Iraq and to show how dramatically life has improved since April 2003 and the list doesn't necessarily start from the security which is much better off now than under Saddam who murdered 3 million Iraqis during his reign; a figure that dwarfs any post-liberation body count or my salary as a dentist which increased by a hundred folds and doesn't end by the huge change in the Iraqi army that changed from a tool of repression for both, the conscripted soldiers and the civilian population to a security preserving tool that young Iraqis volunteer to join.

Technology and communications had their share too; we moved from a country where your e mail needs two weeks to pass through the filters of the Mukhabarat to a country where people like me can publish their thought to the entire world by a click!

And as our author of honor here is British I'd like to add that before April 2003, being caught while listening to the anti-war BBC radio could throw the listener in jail for indefinite time.

Anyway, if I wanted to talk about every single positive change, I should probably write a book about it as a blog post can't hold all that information.

By European and American standards, Iraq could be considered hell on earth and I agree; life is difficult here, really difficult for many Iraqis and it would be almost impossible for a European or an American but the question here is this: is it more difficult now than under Saddam?

The answer is NO.

What really irritated me was calling the historic January election "fraudulent and meaningless"!

I ask here; what are the proofs for such an insulting statement?

Could it be true that all the 8+ million Iraqis who went to cast their ballots on that day were fools!? And could it be true that those people risked their lives just to please someone!?

I believe the author here used the wrong "weakness point" to attack the administrations/policies he doesn't agree with because he actually offended a whole nation; a nation of men and women who woke up in the morning of that day and each one of them was expecting death on the hands of the terrorists yet that didn't stop them from saying their word.

Saying that Iraq was better off under Saddam is in my opinion similar to saying that Germany was better off under Hitler or that Romania was better off under Ceausescu.

The other brilliant statement of our inspired author is really amazing; I don't know how he reached the conclusion that Iraqi is moving towards having a regime similar to that of Saddam's, which he at the same time portrayed as the worst possible scenario!!

I need you to help me figure this out; if the appearance of a regime similar to that of Saddam and the Ba'ath is the worst thing that can happen, then how could things be better when Saddam himself was in power!?

And what are the signs he saw that made him come up with this theory? Okay, let me think… Was it the 1st free election in Iraq in half a century?

Or maybe it was the two peaceful transfers of power within one year?

Or, was it pluralism and the parliament of 275 members who represent all the components of the Iraqi society?

Maybe it's the PM, Jafari who's busting his a** negotiating with the other parties to form a cabinet that ensures national unity?

Maybe I'm not seeing the truth and maybe I'm having confused daydreams after receiving heavy doses of the Bush-Blair propaganda, after all I'm just a simple Iraqi who lived 25 years in Iraq before and after Saddam. I leave you to decide which perspective is more acceptable.

KURDO’S WORLD, 26 April 2005

The British Elections and Iraq War

As a follower of the British elections campaign, I noticed that the Iraq war is now being used as a political pawn to gain the seat of the British PM.

I find it very disturbing if the British public judged Tony Blair over his decision to get rid of Saddam Hussein. It will be a humiliating defeat for freedom and democracy if the British people, the prime founders of democracy, think that if Saddam Hussein was still in power in Baghdad, Iraqis would have been better off.

The decision to topple Saddam Hussein was the most courageous and beneficial decision a British Prime Minister could have ever taken for the sake of the freedom of the Iraqi people.

You may have the freedom that others don't have. You may have never slept thinking that tomorrow maybe your last day but don't take that for granted because everyone else in the world is not living like you. Iraqis lived under terror for over 35 years and no one in the world protested against tyranny and dictatorship in Iraq. Yet when there was a decision to topple tyranny and dictatorship, thousands in the world protested against it.

I urge you not to follow the lead of George Galloway and others who play with your emotions to get to the prime seat.

If you are voting against Tony Blair for the sake of the Iraqi people, then don't please, because the majority of Iraqis don't appreciate that.

When we see the anti-war protests around the world we think "Where were these people when we were entering our mass-graves alive, when our babies were being gassed, when our villages were being destroyed. Why you didn't protest against Saddam Hussein for our sake ?"

Finally I leave you with these two short video clips for the nightmare days which thanks to Tony Blair, they are no longer part of our lives. See his web site for these.