Azzaman, Iraq
'The Iraqi Apocalypse'

By Salman al-Tikriti

May 11, 2006
Azzaman - Iraq- Original Article (English)    

We are advised to stop blaming the former ruler Saddam Hussein, whose deeds and insane crimes exceeded those perpetrated by all of the world's criminals and despots put together.

We are also advised not to use the former president as a rack upon which to hang all of the evil and wrongdoing taking place in our society today.

I am neither a Sunni nor a Shiite. I am not a supporter of any sect or denomination. I am merely a Muslim Iraqi. I love peace and ideologies that respect human beings.

Like many other Iraqis, because of the former ruler's oppression and terror, I had to leave the country.

We left for good and had no wish to return on the back of a tank or with the protection of the world's only superpower's military prowess.

There is no logic to getting rid of tyranny through cooperation with a foreigner who later turns into an invader.

I am not naive. The naive Iraqis are those who were misled into believing that foreign troops would end tyranny. Little did they know that these foreigners would occupy the country and wreak havoc, as is the case now.

Our former dictator had vowed that he would rather see Iraq burn down than surrender it to a foreign power. Some say the tyrant's prophecy didn't materialize, as the country still retained some of the means of survival before the invaders came.

But the dictator didn't mean he would burn the country himself. He said that the country would implode once foreign troops arrived, because their target was not merely to have him or his tyranny removed.

Our country is burning now, and the atrocities of the former leader, one way or another, are being replicated perhaps on a larger scale. Our tragedy seems to have no end.

People are being butchered every day and every hour. Gripped by fear and sorrow, many Iraqis have become walking shadows.

Amid such scenes of horror and death, there are people who now shamelessly have the stamina to contest one another for power, competing for the control of ministries.

VIDEO FROM DUBAI: IRAN TRICKED U.S. INTO ENTERING TO IRAQ

AL-ARABIYA TV, DUBAI: Excerpts from an interview with former Hezbollah secretary-general Subhi Al-Tufeili, May 4, 00:05:49, Via MEMRI

"The Iranians wanted to get rid of Saddam by bringing the Americans into Iraq. This is a very grave responsibility that they bear. They wanted this, and they sent Iraqis to America in order to reassure the Americans that they should come to Iraq."

Ex-Hezbollah Secretary-General Subhi Al-Tufeili