In Baghdad, Mr. Ahmadinejad told reporters, “Visiting Iraq without the dictator is very enjoyable.” This is a fitting statement but with one caveat: Any place without a dictator is enjoyable, especially Iran nowadays. So for whatever reason Mr. Ahmadinejad is pleased, I wish he would use the opportunity of being in a country without the dictator to learn and benefit. From whom? From the dictator. Saddam Hussein. From the fate that befell on Saddam. He too while intoxicated with power used to claim the votes of all Iraqi people after a one-man election. And he too soon after that fell into “enemy” hands as he looked up with his messy hair from a ditch later had to face justice in a court of law and was eventually hanged.
Let’s suppose that Saddam had said: “I deceitfully and through tricks imprisoned the students of my country, tortured them, flogged them forcefully extracted confessions from them and, subjected them to suicide and death.”
Or if he had said: “I robbed the bread off the table of every worker in the country; Forcefully and by cutting the tongues of the workers of the country, I threw women into prisons and honored them with flogging. I sent writers to the gallows on charges of writing; I silenced the country’s press through the thousands of security and non-security directives; I suspended city council elections until my desired names appeared on top of the winners; I appointed my brother to the special inspectorate’s office; My cousin and in-laws became responsible for enforcing “order” as defined by me.”
Or i.e. he had said: “Anyone who does not praise us turns into the enemy; Anyone who asks about the plundered millions and billions is a traitor; Any one who taught a student was a foreign agent; Anyone who spoke of “elections” was thought a lesson in appointments through the town judge, which included “good deeds.”
And these still continue today: “Everyday I drummed the beat of a new war, while its beginning and end result were known from day one; With every word that I uttered I called for concurrence for destruction; I deceitfully called for a nuclear victory celebration at a time when the enemy was the closest to the homeland; Out of ignorance and inexperience I turned the opportunity when the enemy was pleading to talk away and into a situation when my brothers and in-laws, armed with millions and millions, engage in “buying” friends, in giving in to blackmail, in selling whatever is available, in auctioning the country, in tendering out national honor. And all of this at a time when the women of the motherland are sent by groups to the countries of the blackmailers for prostitution.
And there is more…..
Saddam faced his justice. But with him, a nation too has been subjected to blood.
But Mr. Ahmadinejad and others who understand the joy of the absence of a dictator still have time. Time to implement free elections. Time to free all political prisoners. Time to confront those who are plundering national wealth. Time to bring justice to all those relatives, brothers, in-laws etc. Time to end the charade.
But this time that exists will not be there forever. These events are taking place on the eve of an election, in which two thirds of the seats have already been pre-assigned and the rest will be forcefully imposed after it, whose results are already clear. Before the voice of all workers unite, before the one million signature campaign turns into a multi-million movement, before the sigh of all those who have been hanged turns into a storm, before hiding in a ditch, before hair lengths reach shoulders, before foreigners catch the mouse, ‘joy’ is when you come to your senses and let the owners of the house take care of themselves, take over their castle.”
Noushabeh Amiri is a veteran Iranian woman journalist living in Paris.
