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- Monday, June 20 2005, 10:02:27 (CEST) from 203.58.120.11 - ip11.ip120.ip58.ip203.sensis.com.au  Australia -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
Iraqis Silent Majority Intimidated! Ken Joseph Jr. Japan It was days after the Liberation of Baghdad! Hope was in the air! Everybody that could manage it were holding demonstrations in front of the then headquarters of the US in Iraq - the Palestine Hotel. Having been in Iraq during the time of Saddam and seeing how desperate the people were to have him gone and then how happy they were when it happened it made me angry to see a group of what disheveled Iraqis demonstrating against the US. As always it was made up of the people Iraqis always refer to a the "crazies from the south" and as always on the payroll of next door Iran. What made me particularly angry was the fact that their demonstrations were being broadcast around the world as the "will of the people"! Nothing could have been farther from the truth! I knew from talking to so many how different the average people thought. They were delighted to be liberated - desperate that the Americans stay, and yet the only ones demonstrating were the "weird" ones. I returned home and asked a group of our people - we are Assyrian Christians, the original people of Iraq - "lets do our own demonstration! The "bad guys" are all doing demonstrations and the world think they speak for all Iraqis." Isn't everybody delighted to have Saddam gone and to be liberated? "Of course" everybody responded. Aren’t all Iraqis desperately thankful to the Americans for coming? Again, "Of Course"! "Then let go!" That was when thing got strange. "Its too dangerous!" was the reaction of the older people. "Of course all Iraqis are delighted at the liberation. Of course, those demonstrating are the "weird" ones from the south influenced by Iran,. ANTIQUARIAN ARCHAEOLOGY & SYRIAC BOOKS EXHIBIT 2005 Sunday, June 26 2:00 - 7:00 pm at the Assyrian American Association of Southern California 5901 Cahuenga Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601 (818) 506-7577 Free to Public Rare classic books, Bibles, Maps, Syriac books, Contemporary History books and documents will be on exhibit. Authors and Book vendors are welcome to participate. Free space will be provided. Applications for upcoming AAASC's Paul Alex Youhanan Scholarships will be available. If we demonstrate now, though they will remember who we are. We love the Americans, but the Americans are impatient. They will be in Iraq for a year, maybe two but then they will begin to leave and we will be left to deal with the "weird" ones." Suddenly I got the picture! The "silent majority" of Iraqis are all the same. Talk to them as I have all over Iraq. "We are not religious - we do not want to become like Iran! We just want to be normal, to live regular lives. To be rid of all the ideology and religious people! Just everybody leave us alone!" Testimony to the "silent majority" is the explosion in Baghdad of all that is "normal"! internet Cafes, every sort of electronic equipment, cars, massive traffic jams. Every day our first order of business is discussing the traffic. This is how it goes. "Things are terrible these days - it takes an hour to go what it used to take five minutes" they all complain. "Traffic is good" I try to explain. "It is a sign of progress - go to London, New York, Tokyo - any major city - they all have the same kind of traffic. It is good!" They look at me as always with a strange look. "How can it be good if it takes us an hour to go what used to take ten minutes." Then I resort to my last line of defense - how can I try and persuade them that traffic is good if they have never been out of the country." "OK," I concede. "Lets put it another way - a couple months ago at this time did you have a car?" . . "oops" they respond . . "I guess not" Imagine for the first time in your life being able to use a cell phone, surf the internet, watch non-Saddam TV, talk on the telephone without fear. - why would one not be delighted! We were in the middle of a meeting with the Coalition Provisional Authority when a British former anti-war activist turned NGO worker began a long diatribe against the liberation. "The electricity doesn't work, the water doesn't work, the telephone don't work . . . " on and on she want blaming the American for all that was wrong with Iraq even though they had only been in the country for weeks. After she finished there was a long silence. Suddenly one of the Iraqis stood up and said "Maam, with all due respect, all the thing you just said . . . none of them worked under Saddam either . . As I looked over the crowd of wild eyed "Iraqis" many of them from Iran out in the same square in central Baghdad it in front of the same Palestine Hotel, it was "deja vu" - one again the "loud minority" on the payroll of nearby Iran as the Iraqis all feel were speaking for the Iraqi people. That day, days after the liberation of Baghdad I went around and asked those demonstrating what they were demonstrating against. "Against the Americans!" they said. I asked, "Could you do a demonstration like this a month ago?" They became silent and looked down. The point had been made! No, they do not want the Americans to leave! No they are not religious! They are just regular, normal people like anyone else in the world. They were delighted two years ago to be liberated by the Americans and are desperate to not become like neighboring Iran. After 35 years of the nightmare of Saddam Hussein they deserve not have their views and feelings characterized by the "loud minority" who even today intimidate the vast majority of Iraqis who if they had a choice would be demonstrating in front of the Palestine Hotel thanking the Americans for liberating them from 35 years of hell. I will never forget a brief conversation on the way back from the handover of power in Iraq last year. An exhausted American soldier sat with his head down. I asked him quietly "Why are you here". He suddenly sat up and said as I have heard dozens and dozens of times all over Iraq. "I just want to see the Iraqis get a chance at freedom like we have." and then the one statement that always follows it "just doing my job - just doing my job." Does that sound like someone trying to "occupy" a country? In spite of all the rhetoric funded by neighboring radical Islamic states desperate to have Iraq fail so they can continue to intimidate their own people the average Iraqi has seen in action what the Americans have done. Americans in particular can rest assured. The demonstrations they see on their TV Screens do not reflect the feeling of the vast majority of Iraqis who if they had the chance would fill the same square with American and Iraqi flags and banner after banner saying "Thank You America For Liberating Iraq - We Will Never Forget" and PS: Please stay around! --------------------- |
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