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Reader comment on item: A Strongman for Iraq?

Submitted by Abdul Razak Harun (South Africa), Apr 30, 2003 at 06:15

... I will always be amazed at how Americans can pretend to "care" for people like the Iraqis while they conspire to disregard everything they are about. Firstly, Islam has been around long before America. Iraq or Mesopotamia or Babylon has been around long before America. Mr Pipes now wants another "strongman" to be imposed on this long suffering people! There is no question as to what the Iraqi people want. They are a majority Muslim nation and when they will be left alone to choose their own government, they will definitely opt for Islamic governance.

Any interference in this process by outsiders is nothing short of colonialism and will be treated as such by the Iraqis. I'm also always disgusted by how so many Americans ...want to think for Iraqis. They would have it that they be given "democracy" in small doses, very slowly! That is not democracy Mr Pipes, rather it is demockery!

You give Ataturk as an example of a "democratically" minded strongman. Ataturk was a tyrant who up until today is despised by the Turkish people. He robbed them of their history, culture , religion and even literature! He outlawed sufi brotherhoods which up until today hold strong sway over the Turkish people. However, he legalised the liquor trade in Turkey, he forged ties with the West at the expense of his own people, He forced Islam to go underground against the will of his people, and all of this made him very popular only in the West.

You ...say that "The Shi'ites can develop democratic ideas, uninfluenced by Khomeinism." However, both Shi'ites and Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere do not even believe in the existence of that which you call "Khomeinism". For both groups Khomeini was a Muslim leader who brought nothing new but very standard Islam! It suits only the thinking of westerners and their "allies" in the Muslim world to label this as "Khomeinism" ... Do not disregard the aspirations of other nations and peoples if you cannot understand it, or if it does not confer with your view of the world.

You also ... say that after all this "strategising" the US forces should withdraw from population centers. This will be viewed as the biggest insult by the Iraqi people. To have Israel"s great protector present in Iraq even "invisibly" will definitely not be tolerated in Iraq. But that is exactly the extent of American arrogance in the world today. You believe you can insult and disregard everything about, especially the Muslims, and then you want to get away with it.

You can make of this what you want, but I bear witness to you that none of this is going to succeed. I bear witness that America will soon have the war that Saddam very obviously could not give them. This is of course, unless they get out of Iraq right now, as of yesterday!

But, unfortunately we all know this is not going to happen and hence we need only to give it a few short months before the big eruption. My advice to ...Americans... is to get to understand and respect Muslims. Get to know that they have a system and they want to implement it. Get to know that the Middle East is not in America and that Muslims are not wanna-be Americans. Get to know that Muslims and all other people in the world cannot be treated like experiments for your "slow release democracy"!

When the backlash start hitting on American soil, know who started this. Know who perpetuates this. Know that what comes around, goes around. When that does happen it will be important to not pretend that these are "terrorists" who envy America because of your "freedoms". It is time for ordinary Americans to take off the blinkers! ...

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