Who should Iraqis hold most responsible for the suffering and pain they have been forced to endure these past decades? Should they blame George H.W. Bush and General Norman Schwarzkopf, who oversaw Desert Storm, which drove Saddam’s Army from Kuwait in 1991? George W. Bush, who launched the ill-fated invasion of that country? Or Saddam Hussein, the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for decades? For the Al-Iraq News, columnist Hadi Jallo Merhi reveals the mixed emotions felt by most Iraqis, many of whom hate Saddam, and all of whom were devastated by the wars that resulted from his reign.
For the Al-Iraq News, Hadi Jallo Merhi starts off this way:
Who doesn’t remember Desert Storm in 1991? It was an overpowering one. It bore no resemblance to the hurricanes and storms that have hit the United States, the Indian subcontinent or the Philippines. But liberating Kuwait after Saddam conquered it under the cover of night certainly dispensed huge amounts of pain and suffering among Iraq’s people. Thanks to Saddam, Iraq’s people were scattered across the nations of the earth. Not knowing where to go, their gaze was fixed on Iraqi officers and troops looting Kuwait City, only too happy to “liberate” a place that decades later they remembered as their own!
We still recall the hum of warplanes piercing our ears and Tomahawk missiles roaming for targets to attack and destroy, and taking the lives of innocents, making orphans of sons and daughters, and bereaving widows and mothers. When the war ended, they found their country in ruins, destroyed, and in a condition that reminded them only of the catastrophe that befell it. It was a disaster that through a decade and a half, sucked Iraqis into an embargo that they paid for with their souls, lives and money. Without anyone once considering their plight, they wailed through the sorrow, hunger, oppression and suffering.
Military planner General Norman Schwarzkopf, with his warlike gait and camouflage that reflected the sand and hot wind of the desert, and who came from the north and Gulf, was the man who led the awesome attack on Iraqi units. … Under his command, American forces executed one of the most famous battles in military history. The Iraqi army was forced to retreat hundreds of miles into Iraqi territory, and almost all of their equipment was destroyed, including military vehicles, missile bases and military storage areas, and their communication networks were completely disabled.
READ ON IN ENGLISH OR ARABIC AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US