I recently had the pleasure of exchanging a few emails with a military serviceman who will shortly be serving his country and, indeed, most of us who read this board IMO in the forthcoming conflict with Iraq. I gave an account of two Iraqis I met shortly after the Gulf War, and will reproduce it here (edited) in blue text.
I'd like to tell you about a couple of ordinary Iraqis I met in 1991, not long after the Gulf War. I went with Cathie, my American wife, to Tenerife for Christmas 1991. It's one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and it was nice and warm for Xmas. In the evenings would have a few drinks at a nearby German bar called Monika's. There was a casino nearby where we played a bit of blackjack, and a couple next to us who we met again afterwards in Monika's. The gentleman's name was Hommet, and his wife was Lydia, or something like that. They ordered in German and spoke to the others there in German, and we assumed they were German. And then they told us they were Iraqis! We were both surprised, and embarrassed to a degree. We arranged to meet again the next night, although it was brief and we had time only for a drink, so the next night we arranged that all four of us would have dinner at Monika's. By that time, we had got to know eachother quite well, and I said to Cathie that as the friendship progressed, we were going to have to be ready with what to say if we got on to the subject of the Gulf War with Iraq. Here we were - a Limey, and a Yank, about to have dinner with two Iraqis shortly after the Gulf War! You might think that they had issues with us, but they didn't.
They treated us like Royalty. Could not have been nicer.
It became apparent that Hommet and Lydia had had their own discussion over what to do when the conversation moved inevitably to what had happened earlier that year. Indeed, Hommet said something to which the only reaction was for me to ask them what they thought of their leaders. Hommet leaned across the table, and with great emotion in his voice said something like this: "Saddam Hussein is the worst animal, the most evil creature ever to contaminate the earth. He is worse than Adolf Hitler, worse even than Joseph Stalin. People have been killed only for being different. If you were to complain about the price of bread rolls at a restaurant, you could be persecuted, not because the price of bread is important, but because you have dared to rise up to complain". I don't think I've ever seen such hatred in a man's face as in this Iraqi gentleman's face as he spoke of Saddam that night. Hommet and Lydia are exiles from Iraq. Hommet left in 1985 and his wife followed in 1987. They settled in Germany, he running a used cars business and she running a language school. They can never go back, until Saddam is ousted. At the end of the evening, Hommet insisted on paying for everything, warm handshakes all round.
This conflict will be about the removal of WMD, with the removal of Saddam as a by-product. And when he's gone, there will be millions of happy Iraqis - provided that we are allowed to finish the job this time. I don't think there will be any ill will from the Iraqi people towards their liberators - quite the opposite I believe.
