A good friend sends a great email today, with some thoughts of his and a letter from "Women for a Free Iraq" by Iraqi Exile Esra Naama
My friend, a Navy reservist, takes a nice whack at the "going it alone" canar-er-argument:
"I was a personal close-by witness to our 'UN' when while I was still in the Landing forces, after we saw the fall of Vietnam in '75, that we saw Pol-Pot begin the Khmer-Rouge campaign -- which killed as many as 1 out of 3 Cambodians. The UN made a 'gesture' to describe their disapproval... How about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Or when just recently the mass murders occurred in Rwanda a few years back. No -- I know that we cannot be the police force of all of the world and fix ALL of the problems. Neither do I say that we are perfect -- but I ALSO know that I DEFINITELY do NOT want to 'blindly' support this so-called 'world community's' philosophy.
'They Don't Speak for Me'
An Iraqi refugee says stars who decry action against Hussein prolong
the abuse of a people
By Esra Naama, Esra Naama of San Diego is a member of Women for a
Free Iraq.
Web site: www.womenforiraq.org.
I am a refugee from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
When Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Barbra Streisand
speak about the Iraqi people, they are not speaking about people like
me, who are Shiite Muslims -- the largest religious group in Iraq
that is nonetheless forced to live as second-class citizens under the
Sunni regime of Hussein and his Baath Party.
When I was 10, I fled Iraq with my mother and four siblings after the
failure of the 1991 uprising against Hussein. My father, a former
Iraqi army colonel, was one of the leaders of the uprising and helped
organize the resistance forces that fought against Hussein. As a
pharmacist with knowledge of military bases in the southern part of
Iraq, he took crates of medicine and supplies from army hospitals to
the local civilian hospitals.
And he attacked every vestige of Hussein's control in my hometown
of
Al-Diwaniya; he tore down posters of Hussein and restored the old
names on the hospitals and public buildings that had been named for
Hussein.
At that time, we believed that the coalition forces would come to our
assistance. But within a few short days, Hussein brutally crushed us.
In the months that followed, tens of thousands of my fellow Shiite
Muslims were executed. Entire families were killed. Bodies were left
to hang on trees and men were tortured in public. These are the
scenes that I relive in my nightmares.
My father went into hiding to escape execution. My mother had no idea
whether he was dead or alive. She knew that if Hussein's security
forces could not find him, they would come after her children, and we
would be imprisoned and tortured to lure my father out of hiding.
When they took away my 18-year-old cousin, my mother decided we had
to leave. We set off on a long journey, moving to new safe houses
every night, until we finally reached the Rafha refugee camp in Saudi
Arabia. The camp embodied all the indifference and cruelty with which
Arab dictatorships treat their people. We stayed there for nearly two
years. We were lucky.
Eventually, my father found his way to the same camp and we were
blessed to receive refugee status in the United States on Sept. 17,
1992. My family celebrates this date as our new birthday, the day
that we were able to begin our lives as full human beings, with
dignity and hope. Growing up in the United States, I often thought
about the people we left behind. We lost three relatives. My best
friend's father, an army general, was executed for unknown reasons. I
have friends who have lost 50 relatives.
Like many others, I am dedicated to ending the suffering of the Iraqi
people. They are prisoners in their own land and they yearn for
freedom and the simple things that we take for granted -- democracy,
freedom of speech, the right to vote. America is their model for the
future of Iraq, if only America and the world would help them build
it.
I am an American now, and I have been educated to respect the right
to free expression by any citizen, a right no member of my family
enjoyed when we lived in Iraq. I know from personal experience that
the Hollywood actors who decry action against Hussein are really
opposing the liberation of the Iraqi people. I wish they would praise
the American troops in the field or just stay silent.
There is only one measure of comfort to be found in their statements:
When Iraq is finally liberated, these actors will learn that they
have never spoken for the people of Iraq.