Saddam's Secrets Page 31
Whatever weapons they may have—a few AK-47s, grenades, and explosives—will not last very long. And they’re nothing compared to the massive supplies of weapons in the hands of the new military. So the smart ones are beginning to realize that it’s time to get involved in the political process, because resistance will not work in the long run. And even if the insurgents are having some success today—thanks primarily to the large numbers of foreign fighters who are coming from abroad—this will not last either. It’s only a matter of time until these forces will be destroyed.
Learning to Cooperate
We all need to understand that the solution to the problems in Iraq today are not military but political. And when the Sunnis abandon the insurgency, it will be much easier to track down and destroy the black sheep fighters from abroad. And once the Sunnis begin to take part in the political process, foreign insurgents will have no place to hide. They must either surrender, leave the country, or be killed. There’s no other choice.
I have personally spoken with many Sunni leaders, and I have brought some of them to meet with the American officials—including Ambassador Paul Bremer, Ambassador David Newman, Ambassador Richard Jones, and British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock—and these people are now saying they want to take part in the elections and to present candidates for office. They told us that they’re ready to lay down their weapons, but they want the new government to take steps to involve them and look after their interests.
At one point a group of Sunnis told me, “We expect the new government to put our leaders in the parliament.” Of course I told them that’s not how a democracy works. If they want their people to be in parliament, then they will have to run for office and convince the voters that their candidates are the best qualified. They were still under the impression that leaders could be appointed based on the percentage of Sunnis in the country. But now they know this will not happen.
Though they’re only a quarter of the population, the Sunni Arabs had nearly 100 percent control of the government under Saddam, so life now is a little harder for them. But the old system is gone forever. More and more of the Sunni leaders are coming around now, and the men who had thought they could be appointed proportionally decided to go back home to find candidates that the voters would support. And I’m pleased to say that Sunnis in Iraq are now taking part in the election process.
In the fall of 2004 I had a conversation with a prominent Sunni who was the head of the physicians union in Iraq. He said he was worried that after liberation the Americans would try to punish the Sunni Arabs because they were involved in the insurgency and had been strong supporters of Saddam. But I assured him the Americans are not against the Sunnis. I told him that I had been in many meetings in America and Iraq in which high-ranking politicians and military officers had said they wanted the Sunnis to be involved in the political process.
Remarkably, the very next day Dr. Condoleeza Rice, the new American secretary of state, gave a speech in Baghdad in which she said almost exactly the same words. She said, “We want the Sunnis to participate in the political process.” A short time later that doctor called me and said, “Georges, I have to thank you for your comments. You know, I believed you, but for Dr. Rice to say exactly what you told me was very gratifying.” So I said I was glad my message could be confirmed in that way. But I also told him that all the people of Iraq—Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Yazidis, Sabbists, Christians, and others—have a right to participate in the new government, and until we all come together to work together, nothing good will be accomplished.
Learning to Forgive
I feel certain that the Sunni Arabs in Iraq, who are well-educated and prosperous people, will not want to miss this opportunity. They have too much to lose and too little to gain by their resistance. I also feel certain they will come around very quickly because these are very smart people. They’ve been in power for centuries, under virtually every government and every ruler we’ve ever known in this part of the world.
The Sunnis are doctors, engineers, scientists, government officials, economists, and everything else. They are hard working, and many of them are very rich. But if nothing else, they have learned from the defeats their forces suffered in the battles of Falluja, Ramadi, and Al Qaim that resistance won’t work. Those battles were object lessons for them which made it perfectly clear that they cannot hope to win power by military means. The way to affect policy is to run for office and be a part of the system.
There is still a problem with foreign insurgents in Iraq, but we have introduced a plan to stop this invasion. We have put the word out that any region of the country that allows foreign insurgents to live among them will be considered rebel territory, against the government, and there will be more and more attacks on those areas by the military to weed out troublemakers. In the process of cleaning them out, those who shelter, feed, and clothe the terrorists will be in harm’s way, and many of them will likely be killed or wounded. So it’s in their own best interest not to let the insurgents hide out in their towns and villages. And if we can show them how dangerous it is, I believe that, in time, the problem of foreign insurgents will go away.
In many parts of Iraq today, the people are sick of seeing their families and neighbors being killed and wounded or blown up by car bombs and rocket attacks. So they’ve started turning in the insurgents. They’re showing the military where they’re hiding and helping to restore the peace in their area. We’ve explained to them that security is everybody’s business. It’s not only the job of the police and the military. In a free country, every citizen has a role. So we tell them that if they know of someone who’s doing bad things, they should get on the phone and call the police.
Consequently, the level of cooperation between the people and the government is much higher than before. But there’s one thing we still need to remember. The only thing that is not available in sufficient supply is love for other people. The Sunnis love their people; the Shia love their people; the Kurds love their people, but there is no love between them. In many cases, there is animosity that goes back centuries, so it’s not easy for them to forget about the past. But somehow we’ve got to show them how to cooperate and how to share in the freedom and prosperity of the country. And most of all we need to teach them the importance of forgiveness.
You know, at the end of World War II, only about forty-eight people, most of them high-ranking officials of the Nazi Party, were actually put on trial for war crimes. In fact, the majority of the German people had participated in some way with the Nazis. But only their leaders were charged with crimes against humanity, and those men were punished for the crimes of the Nazi regime. But after that, America established the Marshall Plan and the people of Germany were able to move forward, to put the war out of their minds, and to rebuild their nation.
This was good for Germany. They needed to forget about the past and begin again, but even so, they should never forget what the Americans had done for them. By the same token, France should never forget that it was the American Third Army under Gen. Patton that defeated the Germans and gave them back their freedom. Sadly, both Germany and France seem to have forgotten that gift today, but it was important for them to put the past behind them and move on.
So far in Iraq, more than two thousand Americans have given their lives in the struggle to restore freedom in my country, and we must never forget that. And the people of France and Germany and Great Britain should never forget that tens of thousands of American soldiers, who came to help them defeat the Nazis, are buried on their shores. This is the greatest gift of all. Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 kjv). This is especially true in war, and we must not forget the sacrifices our friends have made for us.
For Love of Country
The biggest problem in the country now is hatred and revenge, and people who try to live that way will never be able to solve their problems. Countries like Iraq that have made a livin
g from hatred and revenge for so many years must relearn the lost art of forgiveness. They must practice love instead of hatred; and they need to make use of the resources that have been provided to us by America, Great Britain, and the many others who are making substantial contributions to our well-being. These nations have been very generous with us, and we still have enormous reserves of oil. If all these things can be used with wisdom, I’m sure Iraq will flourish once again.
Unemployment is still a problem, but when the level of violence subsides and employment begins to rise—so that most people have jobs and are working productively once again—I believe you’re going to see an all new Iraq. This is what we need. Another ingredient for building a secure nation, very much as the first settlers of America discovered in the early days of your Republic, is love of country and a willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
There’s a wonderful phrase at the end of the American Declaration of Independence that says, “With a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” I love that statement because that’s what it’s all about. The founders of your country were willing to sacrifice for each other because they believed that, with God’s help, it was the right thing to do.
So long as the Iraqi people continue to say, “my people, my country, my money, my position, and my power,” they can’t win. But when we come to the point where we can all say, “My religion and my beliefs may be different from yours, but I will defend you with my life because you are my brother,” then they will truly be a nation and more than just a collection of warring tribes.
Until now, this spirit has been in short supply in Iraq. Saddam had a lot to do with that, of course, and the willingness of many in the Middle East to live with a certain amount of violence hasn’t helped. We are making tremendous advances, but right now everybody is an individual. Even in the political parties, many leaders are only looking out for themselves, and this is true even at the highest levels. Some of our leaders aren’t working to show that they’re the leaders of all Iraqis. Each man is primarily interested in providing opportunities for his group. And those who are interested in rebuilding a united Iraq with opportunities for all Iraqis, regardless of race or religion, have a tough time getting into positions of authority.
I would have to say that even among those who have come back to Iraq from abroad, many of them are pursuing their own personal interests instead of the interests of our country. A man who has lived in America or Britain for the last forty years really understands very little about how the Iraqi people have lived during all that time. When they come back, some of them want to make a contribution to growth and change; but some are only thinking about how to make a fortune, how to accumulate millions of dollars, and how to take it back to their families in those other countries.
In the meantime, those who have suffered the last thirty years under Saddam Hussein—and much of that under international sanctions—have next to nothing to show for it. The result is that this situation breeds suspicion and distrust on both sides, and when you combine that with the animosity between the various tribes and religious sects in the country, the situation is potentially very volatile.
At the moment, we have military forces from thirty different nations in our country. Iran is on our eastern border trying to meddle in our affairs, even as they’re doing their best to antagonize America and the West by renewing their nuclear weapons program. Iran and our other neighbors, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, are all jockeying for more influence in the Middle East. And the tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians are only getting worse, hour by hour. Just look at the mess we have to deal with!
The multinational forces in Iraq today are aware of all these things, because these are the tensions that make their mission more difficult. The young soldiers are struggling to deal with the problems, but no one should expect a nineteen-year-old Marine to be able to deal with all of this and make sense of it. His job is to be a soldier, to find the insurgents and get rid of them. He’s trained to wage war, not to build a nation. But these are good young men, good soldiers, and they’re trying to do all they can. We ought to understand that there’s only so much the soldiers and their commanders can do for us.
Things That Don’t Work
Part of what your young soldiers are up against is forty years of bad habits. I’m old enough to remember a time when Iraq was a fair and open country, but the vast majority of our people are under the age of thirty, so they have been born and raised in this atmosphere of hate, violence, distrust, and suspicion. And if you want to understand just how evil Saddam Hussein really was, you should know that he opened all the prisons at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and released 150,000 criminals onto the streets. So into the social and political vacuum we have today in Iraq, just imagine what great harm 150,000 thieves, robbers, murderers, and rapists can do when they’re released into the general population.
One of those prisoners, who is back in jail now and awaiting trial, has been charged with murdering 150 people. What kind of justice is there for such a man? Americans come to our country and they want to establish freedom and democracy, but for whom? For murderers like this? You can’t give freedom and democracy to men of this sort. And there are already so many limitations on what can be done. When American soldiers capture a terrorist, their own laws forbid them from interrogating them to get the information they need to save lives.
This kind of thinking can never work in Iraq. If a criminal or a terrorist is taken into custody in Iraq, our police and intelligence will know everything in his head in fifteen minutes. And the criminal will know that the best thing to do is to give them the information, fully and very quickly. Americans, on the other hand, may have to keep these men in custody for years, and still they never get a word out of them. They’re told, “Don’t slap him. That’s a violation of human rights!” and as a result this man who has killed and murdered in the name of his fanatical beliefs may never have to pay a price for his crimes.
Imagine how this sort of behavior looks to the terrorists who are determined to attack your country. You take prisoners who have killed people and destroyed property, with absolutely no regard for human life, and keep them in air-conditioned cells with color television, libraries, telephones, hot showers, clean clothes, and three hot meals a day, and you think this will get you the information you want? Believe me, these killers have never lived so well in their entire lives. That’s not prison. For such men, that’s a holiday resort with all the trimmings. There are plenty of people on the outside who would give anything to be inside a prison like that.
I told Major General Geoffrey Miller, who had been the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison, that this was no way to deal with terrorists and criminals in my country. And I said, for that matter, there are many things that cannot be photocopied and given to Iraq by the Americans. By that I mean, what may be good and appropriate for you in America may be totally inappropriate in my country. And this is something that Great Britain has also had to discover the hard way.
Many in that country have been against President Bush and the war on terrorism. They want to think that all problems can be solved by diplomacy, but that’s wrong. There are bad people in the world who want to kill you, and the only way to deal with such men is with force. Judging by his speech to a national conference of the Labour Party on July 16, 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair may have finally gotten the message: England has decided to tighten down on terrorists and the “evil ideology” that motivates them. But one can only wonder if the English people will ever wake up to what’s really going on around them.
The Specter of Jihad
As with Christianity, where there are many denominations with different interpretations of the Bible, there are also many groups of Muslims who have different readings of the Koran, particularly when it comes to the doctrines of Fatah and Jihad. Certain politicians and clerics take certa
in verses and stretch them, not for religious reasons but to achieve their own political objectives. But by doing this they have politicized their religion and created huge problems for Muslims around the world. At the same time, they have made it virtually impossible for followers of Islam to live in peace with their neighbors.
These divisions aren’t only between Islam and other religions; there are also major disagreements between the various sects and denominations within Islam. We see this when terrorists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claim that even the Shia people of Iraq are not Muslims. Zarqawi has said that the Shia have nothing to do with Islam, so killing them in the name of religion is the right thing to do.
At the same time, he says that the seven hundred thousand Christians living in Iraq are Mushriqin, or polytheists, because we worship three Gods— Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—which is, of course, a total misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Nevertheless, Zarqawi makes these kinds of pronouncements in order to give his followers license to persecute Christians. But what Zarqawi and others like him don’t seem to understand is that in the long run this type of violence is going to hurt him and his followers more than anyone else.
It was this type of dissension and conflict that led us to launch the International Centre for Reconciliation in 1998, hoping to bring people of many faiths together to build bridges of understanding in the Middle East. I wanted especially to improve communications between the Shia and Sunni people because clashes between the denominations of Islam were making life in Iraq impossible for everyone. There’s still a lot of hostility between them, but I’ve seen signs of hope here and there over the last few years.