La pell de gallina

Aquest article de Mohammed Fadhil, del blog Iraq the Model, que publica avui al New York Daily News, fa posar la pell de gallina. Però no la pell de les ànimes sensibles que estan disposades a deixar que la democràcia iraquiana s’enfonsi si així s’enfonsa Bush, sinó la pell insensible dels que creuen que cal ajudar les víctimes derrotant el seus botxins. Resulta humiliant que ens tinguin que recordar que si mitja Europa va sobreviure al totalitarisme nazi i comunista va ser gràcies a una implicació dels Estats Units, tossuda i permanent. Un compromís que va durar fins que es va aconseguir la derrota de Hitler, primer, i la caiguda del mur de Berlín, 45 anys després. Però ja se sap, una cosa es salvar uns europeus blancs i polits i una altra molt diferent arrugar-se els pantalons per un grapat de moros iraquians, bruns i bruts.

I wasn't surprised when I saw Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appear on Al Jazeera to announce America's defeat last week, not long after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did. Zawahiri claims Al Qaeda has won, and Reid claims America has lost.

But from here in Baghdad, I see only a war that's still raging - with no victory in sight for Al Qaeda or any other entity. In fact, I see Al Qaeda on the ropes, losing support among my fellow Iraqis.

In the midst of such a fierce war, sending more wrong messages could only further complicate an already complicated situation. It would only create more of a mess inside Iraq - a mess that would then be exploited by Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia for their own purposes: more iron-fisted control of the peoples and treasures of the region, more pushing the Middle East to crises and confrontations, and more spreading of their dark, backward ideologies.

And so, as an Iraqi, I say without hesitation: the American forces should stay here, and further reinforcements should be sent if the situation requires them. Not only that, these forces should be prepared to expand their operations whenever and wherever necessary to strike hard at the nests of evil that not only threaten Iraq and the Middle East, but seek to blackmail the whole world in the ugliest way through pursuing nuclear weapons.

It is up to us to show tyrants and murderers like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, Syria's Bashar Assad, and their would-be imitators who seek to control Iraq's people and wealth that we, the people, are not their possessions. They can't take out our humanity and they can't force us to back down.

The cost of liberating Europe in the last century was enormous in blood and treasure. In fact, it took half a century of American military presence thereafter to protect those nations from subsequent threats. If that made sense during a Cold War, and it did, then I don't understand why anyone would demand a pullout from Iraq (and maybe later, the entire Middle East) when the enemies are using every evil technique, from booby trapped dead animals to hijacked civilian aircrafts, to kill innocents.