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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (43847)	3/24/2003 7:59:55 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

As American forces have reached nearly twenty miles of the Republican Guards forming the key defence of Baghdad some issues need to be addressed. Yesterday when Americans suffered some casualties a lot of kids lost their cool and they started comparing Iraq with Vietnam. The irregulars and members of the Ba'ath party who are on the forefront of the resistance have taken the predominant Shi'ite population of Basra and Nusryia in a situation of a hostage. From Kerbala to Najaf and Basra the entire area is predominantly Shi'ite and has suffered extensively from the hands of 40 years of illegitimate Ba'ath party rule, which was effectively of Tikritis. It is one of the most disgraceful regime in the region in contest of Gaddafis and Assads to reach to the bottom of the cess pool and qualify as the worst tyranny is what Saddam Hussein represents. The shameful comparison to valiant Vietnamese and Ho Chi Minh with Saddam is a comparison prophet with a thug. Ho Chi Minh or general Giap did not live in opulent palaces. They did not have a population which was ideologically divided into a schism that was 1400 years old. The dogs of Saddam Hussein who are bidding his evil regime for last thirty years plus are naturally not a small core group. Saddam was propped by hundreds of thousands of merciless vandals who have their interests tied up with the interests of the Ba’ath party. These are no neo revolutionaries or nationalists inundated with the spirit of pan-Arabism or saving of Arab honour. These are a bunch of vested interests who should have melted and had melted in the initial assault but now with civilians as cover are trying to delay the inevitable. The move on Baghdad in less than six days is one of the most successful armoured corp moves in the annals of military history. It is not a mean feat. Iraq had spent int eh last ten years, 50 bn. dollars in propping up this elite army which has not been seen so far. If this is what represents a serious resistance than people should go back to their history books and see what was landings at Normandy like? What was the Battle of Bulge or the toll on human lives for Patten to conquer sometime even few kilometres? The present military campaign is a great success and yes there have been casualties but to wipe out an entire army in the south within a course of six days and with only 39 loss of life so far is an unqualified success. Such a sacrifice in no way can be belittled or ridiculed, those who do it are insensitive and Monday morning quarterbacks. The second reason that Iraq cannot be compared to Vietnam since there is no Ho Chi Minh trail from superpowers like China and Russia supporting Iraq. The supply lines for the Viet Cong guerrillas were amply primed by none less than the Chinese and Russians, the two superpowers with ample of cover the possibility for North Vietnam to tie down US correspondingly increased. Vietnam was a proxy war with China and Russia in case of Iraq even Iran or sister Baath party Syria is not ready to touch Saddam with a pole. The neighbours Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iran, are Islamic nations and all provide lip service to the lack of justification of Saddam’s removal but when it comes down to the actual help none are ready to extend any sort of help to Saddam. I was discussing with many in Kuwait about the possibility of Iraqis rising against the American invaders and to the best of my knowledge even the most hardened of the Arab ideologues were unanimous on one point that present irregular resistance is not going to be a feature of Iraqi conquest by the coalition of the willing. I would like to make a point that if Iraq would have been a country so conducive to resistance than it would not be possible for most of Iraqi generals sitting as dissidents in London five star hotels from General Samarai to Chelabi. Most of these people have extensive networks within Iraq but due to its topographical layout no resistance is possible. Umm Qasr four hour clearing or Nasyria twelve hours battles are considered to be early signs of resistance which is going to be seen in forthcoming weeks. I have my doubts on this point sicne I think that fundamental differences within the Iraqi nation as it has been a creation post first world war and not a traditional nation like Japan, Spain or France or India would not help Iraq to launch a massive freedom movement. It is absolutely a liberation movement for the Iraqis and the Iraqis will participate within a few days in this liberation movement but so far 40 years of Baath reign of terror does intimidate them. The gangsters of Ba’ath party imbedded within Basra and Narsryia until eliminated like Umm Qasr do form a very negative and overbearing presence for the populace of Basra and cities so far bypassed by the coalition for sake of run to Baghdad. War has its own dynamic and its own flow. Sixty percent of Iraq is Shi’ite and rest is Sunni and this is the composition of central & south only forget about the Kurdish north. For the south and central to be ruled by 20000 Tikritis, who are for the sake of power over 25 million Iraqis will definitely lay down their life. The present campaign of systematic elimination is very much an integral part of the liberation of Iraq and I believe that days of Saddam are numbered. The 70% projection that I made on 17th of March still holds well if Nasseriah and Basra fall since the fall of these two cities will be synonymous with the successful hammering of the south west and south east Hammurabi Medina divisions, the days of his regime shall be over. Evil needs a devil; this evil regime will not last without the crutches on which it has been founded. As I have repeatedly asserted a nation that kills its own people with gas would not fight someone who comes to liberate him, the core group that has helped the regime to stay in power may resist but that resistance is something that needs to be eliminated. In streets of Baghdad how it will play is something that no one can predict but hammering of the three elite divisions in next few days will set the tone right. Once these elite divisions are softened by the innumerable sorties conducted by the coalition air forces the door to Baghdad will open and once 300-500 tanks will move forward the Baath leadership of Sahaf and Aziz will not have any option but to surrender. I will definitely expect some severe street resistance but that is a price of this war however, I am confident that US Armed forces will handle this with the best of ability and time honoured traditions to conquer enemy land according due respect to norms of international law. The US forces have suffered a delay of few days due to vested interests of the Baathist activists but there is no harm in accepting that a country that boasted the sixth largest army in the world should have resisted for at least five days before letting five American division reaching 40 miles outside of Baghdad. In October 2001 when we highlighted the fact that the Taliban would b eliminated and Kabul would fall the ridicule we receive now was our fate then too but however once the cities will fall with some sacrifice and uncommon valour. All this venom and abuse will be forgotten and we’ll move on to the next page. Let’s hope for the best and let’s be optimistic in wars the first victim is the courage and in this crisis the valour of troops in the ground will be proportional to the backing they will receive from the American nation as a whole. Those who politicise the lives of soldiers should realise that political disagreement should not become so overextending that it may breach the national integrity. US integrity demands that a nation as a whole once the army is in action should support the youths who are fighting for the freedom of a distant Muslim land from the hands of a tyrant.

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (43847)	3/28/2003 2:12:36 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Hitler Incarnate:Zachary Latif 19:21 The analogies between Saddam and Hitler aren't farfetched especially with the genocide of the Marsh Arabs. Their persecution under Saddam is akin to that endured by the Gypsies (Romanies) under Hitler. Like the Gypsies the Marsh Arabs have traditionally existed on the fringe of society and were ostracised for their "foreign origins". In both instances the overt animosity eventually culminated in a systematic extermination of the Marsh Arabs way of life through the drainage of their historic marshes and the replacement with barren desert. Saddam is a modern day Hitler, indeed the only difference between the two was that Saddam's successes in the Gulf War were reversed within a year. Considering his genocidal treatment of ethnic minorities it would not have been unlikely that Saddam may have gone so far as to setup extermination camps, as in Auschwitz, had not international outcry prevented him from doing so. Saddam's men have gone so far to hijack children in order to coerce their male relatives to enlist in the armies of the oppressive regime. This seems to be practise in the war-torn city An-Najaf, the second holiest city in Shi'ism, and it's no surprise Saddam's finding it hard to recruit decent troops from that city. Shi'ites will no longer rally to Saddam since it was during his regime that the holy sites of Kerbala and Najaf have been wilfully desecrated. Hopefully Imam Husayn's tragic death, because of his desertion by the antecedents of the Iraqi Shi'ites, and 13,220 days of mourning since (the first ten days of the month of Muharram is reserved in the enactment and atonement for his death and that of the other Imams) has taught the Sh'ites of Iraq that at the moment of truth they must not fail to remain true to the tenets of their faith and fight for the bearers of freedom. Rumsfeld is hoping the Shi'ites of the south continue their rebellion and I too hope that they will rise up in protest for their culture and the survival of their sect. He ordered the cut-off of electricity and water, necessary supplies, to Basra after its capitulation to the liberation forces. His Nazi traits are all too evidence when he would rather starve his people then allow their liberation (in the same vein Hitler was of two minds whether to raze Paris when it seemed likely to fall into Allied hands). The Anglo-American upholders of global order are perennially faced with threats to civilisation, whether they be ideologues or demagogues. Hitler was a threat and needed to be removed from power, and now in the dawn of the new millennia civilisation must be safeguarded through unseating Saddam. Lives will be lost no doubt nevertheless at the cost of his intransigence. Saddam reveals his Weapons of Mass Destruction with a volley of Scuds to Kuwait. Kuwait reassures its expat community there is noting to fear. And as stated before the barbarians don't know the meaning of the word, "amnesty" and human rights. latif.blogspot.com