Passover begins tonight. Family and food. The first great joyous festival of freedom, echoing through the ages. Bound up in Jewish history, in Christian culture and even in the Negro spirituals of the American south:
"Go down Moses,Every year we gather together at our Seders, links in the chain of a long and proud story. This year, that story has special relevance. Again. In freedom and liberation, yes. And in the Passover wine, drops spilled from the cup as we mourn the blood spilled by the heaven-sent plagues that eventually ended Pharaoh's rule.
Way down in Egypt land,
Tell de ol' Pharoh,
Let my people go."
Iraqi dissident and human rights activist Kanan Makiya wrote on April 9th: "Baathism died in Iraq yesterday". Beyond all hope comes the force of a mighty hand, and Pharaoh is fallen at last. Along the way, however, the Iraqis too have suffered their own version of the 10 plagues. This Passover, as we sit at our Seders, let us spare a thought for them:
- Blood: The purges, the disapperances, the wars Saddam started. Over a million Iraqis dead, a tide of blood that stains all of Iraq's waters.
- Frogs: In Pharaoh's Egypt, the blood brought a plague of frogs out of the Nile. In Saddam's Iraq, the spilled blood of the southern Shi'ite "Marsh Arabs" was followed by large-scale projects that deliberately destroyed a huge ecology. The plague is not the frogs, but their absence and what it implies.
- Vermin: "That effluent, combined with pollution upstream, has killed most of the fish in the Shatt al-Arab river and has left the remainder unsafe to eat. The government can no longer spray for sand-flies or mosquitoes, so insects have proliferated, along with the diseases they carry." (Anthony Arnove, "Iraq Under Siege: Ten Years On", Monthly Review, December 2000) Ah, but doing what was required would have imperiled Saddam's real priority: pesticides to control human, rather than insect populations.
- Untamed Beasts: An apt description of Saddam's security services. What else does one call a creature who bears the title "violator of womens' honour" (i.e. official rapist)? Or those who torture small children to make their parents confess? Or the minions who operated people-shredders and fed victims in feet first?
- Cattle Disease: "The government-maintained irrigation and drainage network has crumbled, leaving much of Iraq's prime agricultural land either too dry or too salty to cultivate. Sheep and cattle, no longer shielded by government vaccination programmes, have succumbed to pests and diseases by the hundreds of thousands." (Anthony Arnove, "Iraq Under Siege: Ten Years On", Monthly Review, December 2000) Odd. The north of Iraq seemed to flourish without these problems, even under U.N. sanctions. But then, Saddam didn't rule there.
- Boils: See under "Vermin." A common by-product of insect infestations. Not to mention a regime so interested in using biotechnology to kill people that it pursues these efforts even at crippling economic cost. The resulting cascade of effects on sanitation, living conditions, and medical programs creates a lot of boils and related medical conditions, while making treatment and prevention less affordable for the common people.
- Hail: Not of ice, but of bombs, artillery shells, and steel. And not just (or even mostly) from the United States. Hail could also represent the toxic chemicals that fell from above on the Iraqi and Kurdish people, courtesy of Saddam, "Chemical Ali," and their cohorts.
- Locusts: The terror of locusts in ancient times was closely linked to starvation - once the locusts had been through, the people would be forced to survive on what they had managed to preserve from the plague. As we come across palaces of gold and shag carpet and warehouses of undistributed food stockpiled by Saddam or slated for the Republican Guard, vs. the emaciated and haggard condition of even Saddam's army, it's hard not to look at the Ba'ath Party and make the comparison.
- Darkness: For the physical darkness of the oil fires set alight by the regime in the south and around Baghdad. For the spiritual darkness suffered by the Iraqi people over the last 20 years.
- Slaying of the First Born: Another byproduct of the wars and endless killings. Few families in Iraq remain intact; most have lost one family member and many have lost several. Leading causes are the war Saddam deliberately started with Iran, and the killings performed by his own security forces. Infant mortality in the areas Saddam ruled (again, in conspicuous contrast with northern Iraq where he did not rule) also contributed.
We know, too, as the Israelites learned, that physical liberation is only the first step. To make the rest of the journey requires changes in the human heart. Even G-d's mighty hand cannot command this, a subtlety whose 2 sides are demonstrated by the 2 key events of Sinai: The Golden Calf, and the people of Israel's required shout of assent to the 10 Commandments. Failure, and freedom. Illusion, and responsibility. Idols, and truths.
Iraq, too, faces a difficult journey from plagues to plenty. Old idols may yet be worshipped, idols of blood and hate, of passivity and mistrust. To succeed is to inherit the promise of a land of milk and honey. To fail is to wander in an endless desert, both spiritual and material. A desert that has swallowed many of their brethren in the Arab world.
Perhaps this time will be different. Perhaps this time, there is hope again:
"The road ahead is, no doubt, very difficult. And now the burden shifts onto our shoulders, the shoulders of Iraqis inside and outside of Iraq. We thank you people of the great United States for the gift that you have bestowed on us. I cannot promise that we will succeed in making good of it. But I do promise that we will try very hard." (Kanan Makiya)As we remember their suffering this Passover, let us pray that the Iraqis too learn to break the chains of hatred and passivity that have bound them, and embrace a set of higher ideals and practices that will make their enduring freedom a reality.
"No more in bondage shall they be,May the spirit of the Lord guide them, children of Abraham, along the path to true liberation.
Let my people go
Then shall all humankind be free,
Let my people go."
UPDATE: Diana Moon writes to point out that fittingly, there will be several Passover Seders held in Baghdad this year.
Nicely done, thank you.
Pesach v'Sameach
Excellent, Joe! You should get this published more widely.
PS I worked your link into my running Pesach commentary on Kesher Talk. Hag sameach.
Beautifully done, Joe. I'm a bad Jew and won't be celebrating Pesach anywhere this week, but hag sameach and have a good Pesach - thank you for reminding me what it's really about.
Regarding plague #9. you said "For the spiritual darness suffered by the Iraqi people over the last 20 years." Do you not think it would be more accurate to say since the dawn of Islam? Granted the entire country is not Muslim, but Iraq is an Islamic state for the most part. I would say that they have been living in spiritual darkness for much longer than the reign of Saddam Hussein. Donald Sensing has a good blog on this titled "God and Allah". http://www.donaldsensing.com/2003_04_01_archive.html#200154917
Great metaphor and beautiful writing. Thank you.
This is the second people shredder reference I've seen. Is this true? The very idea makes me want to puke, cry and rage. Could someone post a link to a reputable report on it? Thanks.
It's completely true, I'm afraid. Typing "shredder" into the search engine here at Winds of Change.NET would get you this link. The reports were compiled and checked by left-wing British Labour MP Ann Clwyd.
You left out the 11th, 12th, and 13th:
11)US invasion. Munitions include cluster bombs (which will kill and maim for decades) and depleted uranium (which will cause cancer and birth defects for generations. Hospitals are full and without electricity. Basra has not had water in 3 weeks. Disease is starting to run wild all over.
12)Chaos and ethnic cleansing. The kurds are moving back from the north and forcing Arabs out of their homes and killing many. Any Suni is a fair target in a Shiite neighborhood. Life savings are dissapearing with the looting of banks and devalutation of Iraqi currency. At the moment, residents of Baghdad are not even allowed out of their own houses, inside their own country, at night, with a curfew eerily resembeling some policies in the occupied territories in Israel.
13)Loss of history. Thousands of years of historical and cultural artifacts and texts gone. Looted. Burned. Destroyed. A tragedy on the level of the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Imagine if the West Wall were destroyed.
You can say that all of this is a small price to pay for the Iraqis liberation, but just remember that it is the Iraqi people, and not you, who will be paying the price. Maybe it will work out and a decade from now the Iraqi people will celebrate their liberation over quiet dinners with their loved ones. Or maybe it won't and ten years from now Iraq, and perhaps Syria and Iran, will look a lot like the Gaza strip. Or maybe it will devolve into civil war. Or a militant fundamentalist Islamic state.
As for Kanan Makiya thanking America, I worry that might be a minority view. Outside of the interim government meeting between 5 and 20 thousand gathered in protest chanting "No to Saddam, No to USA." Some of the allies of both the US and Israel are brutal dictators much like Saddam; will we free them from their plauges? The world is so much more complex than your post would assume.
Bob,
what would have done? Left the Iraqis to Saddam's tender mercies? Left them to be rescued by the appeasers?
Yes, there are difficulties. But consider the lives being lost now, and compare them to the number that would have been lost had Saddam remained in power. That, sir, in the real world, is the sole objective measure of whether we did the right thing or not.
As to each of your points:
11) US weaponry. Yes, innocents were killed, maimed, and burnt. I do not deny it. I do deny that the number so killed and injured is vastly less than the number that were injured and killed in every torture chamber of every city and town over the last 12 years. I do deny that the number is vastly less than at Halabja. I do deny the number is vastly less than all the battle casualties suffered in the Iran-Iraq war. We have done our utmost, within the limits of the available technology and the fog of war, to avoid hitting innocents.
Furthermore, we have also done our utmost to avoid damaging hospitals, water plants, electrical utilities, etc. It is more likely the lack of water, power, etc., is due to Saddam's regime not maintaining them even though it had much wealth.
12) Chaos and ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately, this is par for the course as the various factions settle scores. Would you have us brutally put these down?
13) Loss of history. You are not the first to blame the US Army for not protecting antiquities. First things first! Wasting combat power to protect antiquities (which are reported to have been appropriated by smugglers, not looters) just prolongs the end of armed conflict. In a war, the proper use of forces is to destroy all enemy forces as quickly as possible.
I agree with you the Iraqis alone can determine their future. Faced with a choice between Kanan Makiya's optimism and your cynical nihilism, the Iraqis would do better to embrace hope.
Sir, just because the world is complex does not justify inaction in all cases. Why don't you state your hidden thesis? The US has vast power, unparalleled in history. Power corrupts absolutely, in time. Therefore, the US (and by extension its motives and actions) is corrupt in all it does. Anything that can blunt the power of the US is then a priori good.
The US is not Washington. The US is not corporate America. The US is me, the individual citizen. I, and my fellow citizens, are the force behind Washington. We determine which corporations live or die in the marketplace. We are the ones who have chosen this course of action, because we will not cower in fear. We refuse to wait behind ramparts for the next blow to fall. The best defence is a good offence. If you believe the polls, 3 out of 4 US citizens agrees with this position.
I reject your categorization of me and my fellow citizens as corrupt. I reject your sophistry. I reject your shallow intellectual arguments for passivity.
We did not ask for war. The enemy has warred against us since 1978, when Khomeini took the US embassy hostage. We have had enough.
Khomeini???? That was IRAN and not IRAQ. I know they are only one letter apart, but it seems like an important distinction to make. Unless by talking about "the enemy" that has "warred against us" you mean all muslims.
You label me a nihilist which is not fair. I am against pre-emption, another word for agression. I was against putting Saddam in power and giving him in power and selling him these terrible WMD. I understand it can be put in historical context, but that would mean admitting that Saddam was out allie in striking back against Iran after the hostage taking that you cite as a reason for this war. I was against encouraging the Iran Iraq war and supplying Saddam with the weapons that he would later turn against his own people. I was against us defending Saddam when he gassed th Kurds. I was against us telling Saddam that we had no interest in his conflict with Kuwait. I am also for things. I support the Syria resolution to to make the region free of WMD. I would like to see us sign the anti land mine treaty and the Kyoto protocal. I would like for us to engage in diplomacy instead of warmongering. I would like for us to encourage our allies to stop bahaving like Saddam (Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Rawanda, Albania, Colombia, Eritrea, Uganda, etc.) and improve their human rights. This could liberate people from brutal regimes without a war. I would like for us to stop our silence about the genocide in the Congo. You might disagree woth what I support and oppose but it is unfair to label me a cynical nhilist.
I have no hidden thesis as you insist. I am a US citizen and I do not think my country is evil. I do not think it is perfect either. I never catagorized you as "corrupt." I believe that your post came from the heart. How could anyone not be sickened by Saddam's brutal rule? But you should accept that my post came from the heart as well.
I did not put my real name or email address for fear that I would get hate mail. If you would like to continue this debate in private, let me know by posting something below and I will email you. I find your writing eleqount and I hope that we both could learn from the debate if you are interested.