O Baghdad

Tomorrow will be April 9. On that day in 2003, Baghdad was trampled under the feet of the American conquerors. On TV screens around the globe, American tanks entered the city as if on a holiday outing, and Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf*, Iraq’s Minister of the Absurd, issued proclamations by the hour, threatening the infidels with all manner of defeat and utter annihilation.

Baghdad fell in a matter of hours, while Umm Qasr, situated along the border between Iraq and Kuwait, continued to hold out for weeks. Baghdad fell because it did not want to fight on behalf of a tyrant named Saddam Hussein. Instead, Baghdad chose to protect its honor and fell into the grip of the occupiers; on the same day, the national resistance began. It did not want to struggle under the regime of a tyrant like it had in the past, when the country was ruled by a complex and narcissistic leader. There was nothing positive about that era, and what was supposed to be an honorable act conducted in the defense of Arabdom ultimately ended up being a disgrace, with millions perishing in the name of liberating Jerusalem and fighting the war that bears that tyrant’s name.**

Baghdad fell so that Cairo will not. What was taken from Iraq through war was likewise taken from Egypt, but through President Hosni Mubarak, who was no more than an agent for America and Israel, paying tribute to them in the form of Egypt’s gas and national will.

Every bullet fired at an American soldier in Baghdad and every explosive device that destroyed American armor in Iraq was a patriotic act that freed Cairo; anyone who does not realize this is ignorant of history. If the experience of occupying Iraq had been easy and simple and did not incur enormous costs, then America would have repeated it in Syria or Egypt if it wished to do so. Cairo will continue to be a city for every child who was killed in a bombing and every Iraqi martyr who died for inconveniencing the American presence in his lands.

On this dreary day, I remember the sight of fighter planes as they took off from Doha and Kuwait, the battleships and aircraft carriers as they lurched through the Suez Canal. I cursed every Arab government a thousand times over. This day in 2003 was the day I decided to be a different person. I began to develop a plan that changed the course of my life, and I became a person who works for the sake of his country so that he does not see American tanks in Tahrir Square just as he saw them in Firdus Square in downtown Baghdad. It is the will of God that we see millions of Egyptians in Tahrir Square instead of American tanks! Cairo exists solely for the Egyptian people.

*Translator’s note: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf is commonly referred to as Baghdad Bob in American media and is most popularly known as the Iraqi minister who insisted that American forces were being driven back during the outset of the 2003 invasion.

**Translator’s note: The Iran-Iraq War is sometimes referred to as Qadisiyya Saddam or Saddam’s Qadisiyya. The original Qadisiyya refers to the war between the Arabs and Persians in 636 AD.