In an article in the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times, it was reported that Saddam Hussein told one of his defense lawyers that he was ready to die.
“I am not scared of execution,” said the former brutal dictator of Iraq. While Saddam Hussein awaits the almost certain guilty verdict to be handed down in his ongoing trial, which resumed this week, he has taken up writing some of his own poetry. Here’s a sample of his work from FoxNews.com:
From “Ode to Iraq” “My spirit is still standing firm and will not fall, And in my body runs the blood of the great. Oh Iraq you are crowned in the heart And on the tongue you are the poem of the poets. Oh Iraq misfortune has shaken your sword, so stand tall And gather your strength without bearing a grudge.”
Even though Saddam may have all the time in the world now to write poetry (at least until he is publicly hanged), Saddam is needed somewhere else. And it’s not as a writing instructor in a creative writing class here at the University of Massachusetts. Instead, Saddam Hussein needs to be put back in power as president/dictator of Iraq immediately.
Ever since Saddam Hussein was ousted from power in 2003, Iraq has been nothing short of a disaster area. The once secular nation has seen the rise of sectarian violence, mainly involving the Shiite and Sunni Muslims in their ongoing attempt to seize power in the chaotic political landscape. Some have said the way to solve the problem of sectarian violence in Iraq is to just simply split the country into three separate nations. After all, Iraq has only been an independent nation since 1932.
Long before Britain granted the country independence, the region was divided into three separate provinces under the Ottoman Empire. The problem with this plan, as Anthony Cordesman writes in his New York Times article “Three Iraqs would be one big problem,” is that Iraq is not divided along a neat set of sectarian lines. As a result, the effort to divide Iraq along sectarian lines would result in massive “relocations.” In addition, there would be fights over the control of oil in Iraq. According to Cordesman’s article, “90 percent of Iraq’s government revenues come from oil exports.”
So if dividing the country along sectarian lines is not the solution to creating regional stability, what is? Like I said earlier, all you have to do is tell Saddam Hussein he is back in power. Say what you want about the guy, and yes, I know he is a brutal dictator who is responsible for countless lives being lost, but he was the only one it seems that was able to keep the Shiite and Sunni Muslims from going at each other’s throats. When Saddam Hussein was ousted from power, it created a political vacuum which the majority of Iraqis filled by democratically electing a Shiite government. However, this election has only alienated the Sunni Muslims in Iraq, and was one of the factors in the Shiite mosque being blown up a few months ago. The solution to this entire mess is to put Saddam back in power.
Like many people have said before, Saddam Hussein was absolutely no threat to the United States. The Bush administration blatantly lied to us when they said Saddam Hussein had ties to the terrorist organization Al-Qaida. As a result of the U.S. invasion, however, Iraq has become a recruiting dream for Al-Qaida. Sadly, Iraqis didn’t dance and throw roses at our troops when they arrived on the scene. Instead, Iraqis grew bitter and desperate as they saw their country stampeded by American troops under the orders of President Bush. The desperation has led many Iraqis to turn towards Islamic Fundamentalism as a way to fight back against the imperialistic United States. Without any doubt, Iran will soon be looking to extend their extreme Islamic teachings to desperate Iraqis who are looking for anything to cling onto as they watch their country be torn apart.
And let us not forget the claim by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Now, you would think that our government would be able to easily tell our troops where to find these weapons, since it was the United States who sold Saddam Hussein these lethal weapons when Iraq was at war with Iran. Back in the 1980s, Saddam was in fact a friend of the United States when they were at war with the “dangerous” Iranian nation, which was then under an extreme Islamic fundamentalist leadership (and still is) that had grown hostile towards the United States.
So, in my opinion, the only way that we can bring home our troops immediately and at the same time bring back some regional stability to Iraq before we invaded is to have Saddam Hussein regain power. Despite the fact that this is the same man who during the Gulf War I thought was going to steal all my presents under the Christmas tree. It’s sobering to know that the only person who can bring back order to a chaotic nation is one of the most brutal dictators in history, but it is necessary in order to bring home our troops and to make sure Al-Qaida and Iran do not gain more influence in Iraq than they already have as a result of the invasion.
Kevin Dooley is a Collegian columnist.