As a Kurdish person who grew up amongst Iraqis I believe that writing this article might help many Iraqis who read it understand Iraq from a Kurdish perspective. Today’s Iraq is totally different from any other country in the Middle East as it has been looted, raped and destroyed by the various wars, internal and external, inflicted by the evil dictator that is Saddam Hussein and not helped by the entire world’s, and that includes the United States, involvement in aiding and helping the dictator keep power.

Where was the world when Saddam started systematically destroying and eradicating all his opponents? Where was the world when Saddam purged all the Iraqi communists and Baathists who realized his evilness. They stood by and aided and supported him and only made him strong enough to keep a grip on power and make sure to enforce maximum devastation on his people. When I say we, I mean every Iraqi has been somehow affected by Saddam Hussein. It was not just the Kurds or the Shiites who bore the brunt of his regime, but everyday Iraqis who lived in a constant fear that can never ever be put in words. I was lucky enough never to have lived through Saddam’s reign of terror but unfortunately for most Iraqi’s they did not have the same opportunities. .

Growing up most Iraqis recall hearing the stories from family and friends about how bad life in Iraq was and it was frustrating because never did any single media network or government in the world care until it was too late. There were human rights groups and left wing organizations that would try and tell the world of the nightmare the people were living in but alas to no avail because nobody listened. What makes me sad is how little people understand about the whole situation, and the evidence is listening to people giving me their reasons about why Saddam’s dictatorship is just western propaganda and that he did well for the country. Try telling that to the families of all the Kurds who lost loved ones in the Anfal, try telling that to all the Shiites who lost loved ones for no real reason apart from the thirst for a true fair leader who treated them as equals. Try telling that to the people of the marshes who lost all they had thanks to Saddam and his thugs, try telling that to the Iraqis accused of Iranian ancestry who were thrown out of their own countries into Iran for NO reason. Iraq has been occupied for so long and not a Tikriti occupation as many Iraqis like to say now but a Saddamist occupation aided and abetted by all those who supported him. I am not here to raise conspiracy theories on who helped him and when, all I do know is that nobody did enough and its so saddening that so many lives had to be lost for no reason. .

One of my main problems is with the Arab League, I can not believe that this League of dictators and agents were so insensitive to Iraqis when they greeted and invited people like Taha Yassin and Izzet Douri to summits and meetings as if they were the legitimate government in Iraq. They did never have the courage to tell them or warn them of their mass crimes against humanity that they perpetrated in Iraq. Instead they treated them with respect and in doing that proved to the average Iraqi that they supported the killing and destruction of my country. The majority of all good Iraqis share the same long term dream of goals of peace, prosperity and good times for the people of Iraq. After all they have been through, is it too much to ask? The people of the Arab world now support the resistance to the American and Westerner troops in the big misconception that it is a national resistance. Again they are ignorant in that they do not really listen to the average Iraqi who will accept any leader that shows them good faith. The people are sick of war, politics and all the problems brought with it and that is why there is no national resistance movement. .

The people carrying out these attacks which mostly result in the loss of innocent Iraqi life have only certain points that they want to prove. They want to keep Iraqis living in fear, the same way that they have been for so long. They want to come to power through violent means so that they can inflict whatever agenda they have on these innocent souls. They are not good Iraqi people who are interested in a free democratic Iraq, instead they realize that democratically they will never enjoy power in Iraq and therefore by force and sheer brutality maybe they believe their long term dreams of becoming the next Saddam of Iraq. That is why I am very critical of the actions of these people, they claim that in a year nothing good has happened in Iraq and that life is worse now than Saddam’s time. To me I do not make decisions on what I think because luckily I am comfortable with electricity, security and everything I want here in Canada, but talking to family and friends I can see that the majority of people realize that at least now there is hope. .

Personally I was not for the war because I am a believer in peace and do not ever want to be seen as encouraging the loss of life, but at the same time I do realize now that the majority of people inside Iraq were so sick and tired and scared of Saddam that they would have taken anything to get rid of him. It is unfair for me to oppose a war that will maybe lead to the people of my country enjoying the same freedoms and life that I myself selfishly enjoy. I realize now that things are not rosy and that there are a lot of problems in Iraq but unlike before I think there is hope. Hope is a big word because as we know the people in Iraq do not have much to look forward to besides hope and the great Iraqi soccer team and my man Hawar Mullah Muhammad.