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Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign
News About the United States
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By Salameh Nematt Al-Hayat
June 25, 2005
Yesterday the warning was about “Lebanizing” Iraq; today the warning has been about “Iraqizing” Lebanon. The “gates of hell” have opened, as Amr Moussa [the secretary general of the Arab League] promised us on the eve of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. But who are those who have opened the "gates of hell" on the Middle East, with their explosions and their assassinations? Are they the Americans who overthrew one of the bloodiest regimes in modern times and provided the opportunity to hold the first Iraqi elections in 50 years? Are they the Americans who, along with the French, who issued U.N. Resolution 1559, which seeks to return sovereignty and independence to Lebanon? Or is it those who are working to forbid Lebanese and the Iraqis from attaining their right to freedom and independence by killing the symbols of freedom and independence in both countries?
Who is responsible for delaying and obstructing Lebanese and Iraqi independence, and for prolonging Syrian patronage and the American occupation? Is it the Americans, who are desperately trying to find an exit strategy from Iraq - or is it the remnants of the Baath Party, their terrorist allies and the regimes that fund and arm them, foiling any hope of building democracy in Arab lands from the Levant to Baghdad?
After killing off Rafiq Hariri, who was it that set off the explosives that killed George Hawi [Former Lebanese Communist Party leader] and before him Samir Kassir [a Lebanese columnist]? Is it a coincidence that all the victims were amongst those fighting for the liberation of their country and seeking to achieve independence from guardianship and submission? Who is killing the symbols of sovereignty in Iraq - from police to National Guard, to MPs and elected officials?
No doubt the message has been received …
The message that has been received in Iraq and Lebanon is that it is not permissible for people in Arabs lands to dare ask for freedom and true independence; even if the whole world stood in support of such people.
In the worst-case scenario, if elections could not be foiled and the will of the people could not be suppressed, the work would involve killing the symbols and leaders of freedom. If that did not work, the gates of hell would be opened - as in Lebanon and Iraq - in order to guarantee that no Arab people anywhere in the Arab Nation (Umma) would enjoy the ridding themselves of the corrupt class who consider it their natural, inherited right to suck the blood of their people for all eternity ...
Congratulations to the killers; they have succeeded in turning a chance for democracy - a mere promise of attaining it from Iraq to Lebanon and for the entire Arab world - into a swamp of blood. They have succeeded in transforming the words "freedom" and "reform" into filthy, dangerous words that threaten those who utter them with death. I feel sorry for our Libyan colleague, Daif Al Ghazal, who thought that the world had changed … and that he could now speak his mind freely without fear.
[Editor's Note: Daif Al Ghazal was a Libyan journalist and critic of the Libyan government that was tortured to death while visiting Libya].
It might turn out in the end that the Iraqis and Lebanese have been luckier than their Arab brothers, since they have discovered, at least for a moment, that someone is willing to stand beside them - for objective reasons and pragmatic reasons - which has culminated in a chance for liberation that may or may not succeed. We await the verdict of history. As for the rest of our Arab brothers, their situations differ according to their different circumstances; but woe unto every Arab who cherishes the dream of freedom, thinking it possible to attain without paying the price, quite possibly with his life.