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Iraqis fought for freedom

We are seeing a curious development on the third anniversary of Iraq’s liberation: The liberators of that once-wretched gulag—the Americans, specifically the Bush administration—are now being scorned by many for base motives and misguided thinking.

Critics of President George Bush and the war have been relentless in their opposition since the removal of Saddam Hussein. They blame the U.S. for the bloody-minded insurgency that is now pitilessly unsheathing its barbarity to extinguish the first whiff of freedom in a culture overburdened by a long history of tyranny.

Historians will argue over details of the war, faulting the planning and execution through wisdom garnered in hindsight. They will reach their tentative conclusions with the perspective of time. Similarly, those of us who supported freedom for Iraqis, as I did, and remain unmoved by the critics, have also come to a twin understanding of history and human nature in general.

Iraq is diverse ethnically and religiously. But from the beginning of Arab-Muslim history until the overthrow of Saddam, Iraq—land of the two rivers—was ruled by despots from the minority Sunni Arab tribes.

Every Iraqi knows the words of al-Hadjadj ibn Yusuf, sent from Damascus as governor of Iraq (694-714 CE) following one of many rebellions in the area. Here are a few words from his memorable speech:

“By God, O people of Iraq, people of discord and dissembling and evil character … I shall strip you like bark, I shall truss you like a bundle of twigs, I shall beat you like stray camels … I swear by God that you will keep strictly to the true path, or I shall punish every man of you in body.”

For 13 centuries the political culture of this area and surrounding region was shaped by despots. Hence, as shriveled lungs require time to reacquire the ability to breathe naturally, so do people who have never experienced freedom to build democracy.

It is not surprising that segments of Iraqi Arabs, belonging primarily to the Sunni sect, in collusion with radical Islamists from abroad, have turned a portion of Iraq into a Hobbesian world of murder and mayhem.

What has been remarkable is the instinct for freedom that has led most Iraqis to resist falling into the hell that descendants of al-Hadjadj ibn Yusuf want to push them into—with sectarian provocations, suicide-bombings and incitement against their liberators.

History is non-linear, its progress accompanied with any number of momentary reversals, its heroes prey to assassins’ weapons, its freedom songs never fully concordant with children’s dreams and their parents’ prayers.

In September 1943, Winston Churchill traveled to Boston to receive an honorary degree from Harvard. The future of freedom’s struggle against fascism hung in the balance as Churchill reminded the assembled audience: “The price of greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station… absorbed in their own affairs… they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their protecting oceans.

“But one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilized world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes… The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility.”

In defeating and rebuilding Germany and Japan, Americans displayed, despite lapses, responsibility in extending freedom’s frontiers.

Similarly, Bush’s decision to remove Saddam from power in the post-9/11 world has been vindicated—despite what the critics say—by Iraqis acquiring freedom. Now they must learn the inherent risks of freedom—risks they must either responsibly avoid, or, failing that, for which they must be accountable without blaming others.

Salim Mansur
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