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Your Failure is their Success - SGT. Mohammed O. Masry | Back to list
So many want you to fail, but day by day, one Iraqi after another will prove them wrong. The idea that not only will clerics from Qom ask now for political asylum in your nation but that soon other people from the Middle East might one day come to Iraq requesting muharram for a place to share knowledge, engage in ijtihad, and carry on the tradition of pursuing knowledge the Arabs were once world famous for scares every corrupt Arab dictator more than the threat of an attack. The Al Sauds who once loaned Saddam billions of money to fight Iran because they considered their own lives too valuable are desperate to spread their wahabbi ideas by bribing and intimidating sheiks. Just like they couldn't intimidate my mother for speak out against human rights as a Saudi woman from Mecca by taking away her citizenship, they wont intimidate Iraqis that pride themselves on tolerance and moderation. The Assad clan knows they cant keep the money Saddam stole from you. They may have forced my grandfather to leave Beirut but they are powerless in Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul. No longer can they pretend to speak for the people of the Middle East while sponsoring jihadists who come and blow up mosques or blow up police stations. Your success will be their ultimate failure. Saddam tried to spend billions of your money on broken Soviet weapons to make himself the Leader of the Arab Muslims but he failed to learn from the past. He failed to see that the most powerful Caliphates, from the Moors in Spain to the Abbasid on the Tigris were powerful because of their tolerance, their quest to learn, and their treatment of all, including minorities with respect. This isn't about me as a soldier persuading you to like the Americans. I may be an American Soldier but I could care less whether you love or hate the Americans. I want you to love yourselves more than you could ever possibly hate. Of course the Americans have made many mistakes, this is the first time they have ever done anything like this. A year ago most Americans couldn't find Iraq on the map, now there are Army officers that write letters back home asking for donations to help Iraqi children, and these same officers who focus on the profession of warfare are being told to risk their lives to drive to the worst parts of town, where even our interpreters would never go and take relief supplies to areas where even the Arab/Muslim NGOs (mousaeda) are too scared to go. Now, the Americans have committed errors in their relation with the Middle East, we let the Arab proverb of a thousand days of tyranny being better than one day of anarchy, infect our minds. We preferred Arab dictators who brought stability, but that came at a price. A price that has forced the world to change that thinking. No longer can we let 25 million human beings be represented in our eyes by one despot. No longer can we stand by while a once vibrant society is destroyed. Some may say the Americans plan to stay and control Iraq forever. That once we go somewhere we will never leave. Yet look to your South, the Americans that went to Saudi Arabia have all left, and no longer can the Al Saud family use their presence as an excuse not to carry out reforms. Some say the Americans don't understand the Iraqis, and this is somewhat true. If you go to the places where you find American bases in the Khaleej and the Sinai you will see them living like "modern bedu" in the desert away from the people. This is the first time Americans have really been among the people in the Middle East. It will take more than 10 short months for us to really understand each other, but when the Americans do make mistakes they cannot hide behind blaming everyone else on all their woes, because the entire world can see without censorship the good and the bad for once. The veil has been lifted and it is in the hands of us all. There is no reason why together the same Americans who worked to create the Federal Republic of Germany cannot work with the Iraqi people to create a vibrant nation. In the military they teach us to look for the weakness of the enemy to see what can be used against them. If I as an Arab were to examine the Arab people I would have to say the single greatest weakeness is your modesty. The majority of Arabs that are modest and decent are also the ones that are silent to those that are corrupt or wicked and attempt to speak on our behalf. When people think of courage and bravery we love to think of someone carrying a sword or gun, but these aren't going to be the weapons used to improve Iraq. Carrying a M16 or Kalashnikov doesn't make me a man just like having a baby doesn't make someone a man; raising a child to be a responsible an educated person is what makes a true father. The new warriors are going to be the mothers that speak out against ministry officials who want bribes for Hajj tickets. It's going to be the child that speaks out against a corrupt headmaster. Above all else, its going to be the Sunni Imam that goes to the Shia mosque down the street to say over and over again with his Shia counterpart: we stand against fitnah, we stand against violence, and we will work together, because to do otherwise would be an insult to Islam and our Iraqi heritage. Sometimes children will come to ask me if America is beautiful and I don't know how to tell them the truth. How to express the beauty I see amidst the destruction here in Iraq. How people that have suffered so much can still smile, how they can be so resilient. Wallah its truly humbling. Be just a little more patient, the race is beginning. In six months the airport will be the gateway into which your family members that left Iraq years ago will cheer and cry as the pilot says during landing "Welcome to Baghdad International Airport". In the coming months the 18 billion that the American Congress approved will be spent on getting Iraq out from hiding, and the loans that were used to buy destruction, torture chambers, and rape rooms will be reduced and cancelled, inshallah. The high speed phone network that Saddam built secretly for his army will be used to create one of the fastest and most powerful internet systems in any developing nation. And most importantly, as soldiers that fought the war and some of you called ulooj are replaced, they will learn more about your culture and your nation and just as important learn how showing more respect and more humility along with material reconstruction will keep them safe so that Iraqis can focus on fighting for a better society, not each other. I know some might say, that I as an Arab American cannot ask Iraqis to do anything because I am an ajnabi, but when I see so many beautiful examples in our heritage and among Iraqis here I refuse to say silent. "The ink of a scholar is far holier than the blood of martyr" -The Prophet Jazaullah Al Khair SGT. Mohammed Omar Masry, writing from Baghdad, Iraq Email omar_786_amin@yahoo.com Top |
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