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CounterPunch
November
16, 2002
The Burning Sails of Baghdad
by MICHAEL S. LADAH
The United States with the support of the UN Security
Council has pushed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein into a corner.
Even his Arab brothers are now calling on the President of Iraq
to give up his defiance of American demands to disarm. By all
accounts, the Iraqi leader is quickly reaching a point from which
there is no escape. Arab history is full of heroics and romantic
events. And if Saddam Hussein is true to his people and to his
Arab ancestry, he still has an opportunity to become a hero.
The Iraqi leader has reached a point from which there is no escape.
The annals of Arab history tell us that
in the year 711, the Arabs in North Africa were about to make
history by expanding their conquest into a third continent.
They were preparing to invade the Iberian Peninsula. The Arab
military genius Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the straight now named
after him as the straight of Jabal Tariq, the Straight
of Gibraltar, with a modest invasion force of 300 cavalry and
7,000 infantry. As he and his forces landed on the Iberian shores,
Tariq gave the order to empty the ships and set their sails ablaze.
With his own fleet completely burned, Tariq addressed his stranded
troops. "The sea is behind you, and the enemy is ahead
of you," he told them "and you have no escape but the
truth and patience." This was their moment of truth, on
a shore they had never been on before, doing what no Arab force
had ever done, invade Europe. Tariq ibn Ziyad and his troops
went on to defeat 30,000 Visigoths, a force three times their
size, at Wadi Laqqa in the battle of the Transductine Promontories.
And thus began the almost 800 years of Arab rule on the Iberian
Peninsula.
Saddam Hussein has not proven to be the
hero or the genius that Tariq ibn Ziyad was, although some in
the Arab world would believe otherwise. On the eve of a major
battle for the survival of his regime, the Iraqi leader imagines
the sails of his ships on fire. But, unlike Tariq and his invasion
force, Saddam Hussein does have a choice. He can continue defying
the West but he will only be delaying the inevitable. He can
continue to whine, moan and complain to Arab leaders around him,
but none will listen. He can continue with his attempts to rally
the Moslem world to his defense, but he will be ignored. He
can sit and wait for his destiny to be borne out, but a mighty
invasion force will eliminate him and, in the process, only bring
death and destruction to the Iraqi people, humiliate the Arab
world, and further polarize the Moslem world against the West.
Saddam Hussein is under the delusion that he can scorch the
earth under the feet of the American invaders, but in the process
he will also scorch his own people. The Iraqi leader is faced
with "the truth and patience" that Tariq ibn Ziyad
spoke of thirteen centuries ago, but the Iraqi leader can take
a more honorable route, securing his place in history as an Arab
hero like Tariq.
Saddam Hussein can, and should, abdicate
his rule to spare the Iraqi people the agony of defeat at the
hands of a mighty military power. He can spare the Arab world
the humiliation of standing idly by in the face of a Western
invasion. In doing so, Saddam Hussein will be taking the Arab
world into a new age where no Arab leader has been before. Before
he abdicates, he can appoint a provisional Iraqi government,
with true representation of the Iraqi people, including all of
its minorities. The provisional government, with no ties to
Iraq's current ruling clique, would truly disarm. It can arrange
for the drafting of a democratic constitution, build free democratic
institutions and hold free elections. The provisional Iraqi
government would invite international monitors to observe the
drafting of the new constitution and monitor the free and democratic
elections. This is the only true course that would defeat the
imperialistic intentions of the United States and its neo-colonial
allies.
The Iraqi leader is going anyway. The
sails of his ships are burning. He faces the truth and patience,
but he does have an option. So why not go out as a hero?
Michael S. Ladah
is an Arab American who lived and worked in various parts of
the Middle East. He is the author of "Quicksand, Oil and
Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed Palestinians."
He can be reached at: mikeladah@hotmail.com
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