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Perhaps this is the greatest war ever waged by a free nation, Americans risking their lives to liberate the land where God created Adam and Eve and where the Scripture was recorded for all ages. Iraq's ancient name is Bet Nahrein, or as Herodotus the Greek historian translated the name, Mesopotamia, the Land between the Two Rivers. Although there are hardly any descendants of the original Ashurai remaining today in Iraq, still it's a symbolic victory for an ancient civilization. The looters may carry off some ancient artifacts of Ashur from the Baghdad Museum, but the Scriptures have been preserved forever already. These Scriptures are still in use in Iraq by the Church of the East. There is a small remnant of the Ashurai people still surviving in Iraq. Nobody speaks of them for fear of a renewed genocide against them. Nevertheless, it's possible now for a visitor to Iraq to go into one of the few churches remaining there and hear the language Jesus spoke being sung in prayers and the celebration of Mass. At this critical juncture in the history of the world, it's important also to realize that liberating Iraq could mean the stabilization of the Middle East, but without the United States of America remaining in Iraq on a permanent basis this cannot be realized. If Iraq is opened for the French, the Germans and the Russians to exploit its resources, they will also introduce their atheistic systems of government into Iraq. This will be a new affront to the mainly Muslim population of Iraq, as they will resist and overthrow the West altogether and institute an Islamic regime, which incidentally will be a repeat of what happened in Iran. As for the security of the State of Israel and the settlement of the Palestinian Issue, it would be more advantageous if the new government of Iraq is secular, as Iraq will serve as a model state in the democratization of the whole region. Iraqis are demanding free elections and a democratic form of government, with representatives of the Ashurai, the Kurds, the Yezidis, the Turkomans, the Shi'ah Arabs, the non-Saddam followers of the Sunni Arabs and the non-Ba'athist Chaldeans, forming a congress or parliament that insures fair participation of all the minorities of Iraq. It will take a lot of care to assemble such a representation; however, after a number of free elections a representative form of government will ultimately emerge. It behooves the United States, therefore, to guarantee this form of government for Iraq, not only through the leadership of the President of the United States, but the US Congress should also pass an act to insure that Iraq will be set on the road to freedom and democracy in the Middle East. Such an act will begin the process of stabilizing the Middle East and within approximately twenty years it will be possible to conclude the peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Issue. Permanent peace between the Arabs and Israel isn't possible if the US pulls out of Iraq in a few years. That's why it's important for Congress to pass an act to make sure that Iraq will remain a free country in the future regardless of what party is in power in Washington. Just as the US guarantees that Israel will be always defended, it's necessary to guarantee that the freedom of Iraq is permanent. Most of the democrats in the US Senate and the House of Representatives think that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was a sovereign nation. This wasn't so by definition, as it was the Ba'ath Party that ruled Iraq, and the Ba'ath Party represented a foreign occupation of Iraq. The Ba'ath Party is a political system that was developed to Arabize all Islamic nations regardless whether they are Arabs or not, based on the doctrine that the Koran can only be read in Arabic. It was a Pan-Arabian movement designed to place Arabs in charge of the whole Middle East. The party was started by Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt and it spread to Syria and Iraq. Syria was for a while united with Egypt in the late fifties. Iraq was to be annexed later, but Nasser died after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the Ba'ath Party floundered. Saddam Hussein made himself the leader of the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, but it was not much more than an excuse to rule as a dictator; there was no ideology involved and his call for Jihad against America and the UK was ignored by all Arab governments. Iraq is a great base for the US to establish a stabilizing presence in the Middle East. Iraq is a self-sustaining land with adequate resources for every inhabitant of Iraq and a major supplier of oil for the world. The land is geographically and strategically well-suited for a great super power like the US to utilize in the fight against international terrorism. On the other hand, America is a country that has earned the respect of all peoples of the world by its support for the human rights of every nation regardless of size or religious constituency. The US is the main supporter of the United Nations. US financial support and leadership is crucial in the UN, if the UN is to serve the purposes of freedom and democracy in the world. The US has invested a great many lives and billions of dollars in the process of freeing Iraq. The US should not consider allowing any country to come into Iraq with the idea of exploiting the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people are a diverse people and they are free now. Iraq is a vulnerable country without an army, navy or air-force; it must be protected from every outsider, if Operation Iraqi Freedom is going to amount to anything. April 19, 2003 |