Sunday, January 10, 2010

Badr Shakir al Sayyab and surreal Arab fantasies

Today I learned about Badr Shakir al Sayyab, the Iraqi poet who wrote "The Informer", which was used by the Angry Arab to condemn Mohammad Dahlan in a post. Today a Jordanian American named Habis used the poem to condemn me as a traitor, apparently because I remind people of Saddam's horrors and I support democracy in Iraq. Habis has accused me of supporting the US invasion. I had nothing to do with the invasion, but I was always in favor of assisting the Iraqi people in overthrowing the tyrant, the mass murderer of Iraqis.

I had nothing to do with the 1991 invasion either, but I remember very well how differently the Arabs reacted to that war, during which the US and its allies bombed Iraq for 40 consecutive days and nights, with smart bombs and conventional bombs and definitely the most bombs dropped on an Arab nation in the history of the world. The Arab "resistance" did not respond by sending hundreds of suicide bombers to fight the American invaders in Iraq in 1991. The Arabs did not care how many bombs were dropped on Iraq, as long as Saddam stayed in charge, and stay in charge he did, mass murdering more Iraqis along the way and building dozens of palaces while ordinary Iraqis struggled to survive.

The Arabs were relatively happy throughout the 90s and many of them moved to America to take advantage of its great freedoms and opportunities. It was only after America toppled the hero of the Arab world, Saddam, and put him on trial for crimes against humanity, that the Arabs and "Ummah" unleashed their arsenal of suicide bombers, many of whom were convinced that killing "apostates" will be rewarded by Allah after the appropriate fatwas were issued.

Clearly the Arabs do not care about Iraqis as much as they care about Sunni domination in Iraq. Many Iraqis are shocked to see Arab poets praising Saddam, and I am shocked to see Arab Americans using an Iraqi poem to condemn Iraqis who only want peace and democracy in Iraq. It is bizarre.

To add to the surreal irony and hypocrisy, Badr Shakir al Sayyab was a Basrawi and a communist. The Ba3ath party killed communists!

In February 1963 Qasim was killed in a Baath Party coup. Morris claimed recently that the CIA was behind the coup, which was sanctioned by President John F. Kennedy, but a former very senior CIA official strongly denied this.

"We were absolutely stunned. We had guys running around asking what the hell had happened," this official said.

But the agency quickly moved into action. Noting that the Baath Party was hunting down Iraq's communist, the CIA provided the submachine gun-toting Iraqi National Guardsmen with lists of suspected communists who were then jailed, interrogated, and summarily gunned down, according to former U.S. intelligence officials with intimate knowledge of the executions.

Many suspected communists were killed outright, these sources said. Darwish told UPI that the mass killings, presided over by Saddam, took place at Qasr al-Nehayat, literally, the Palace of the End.

A former senior U.S. State Department official told UPI: "We were frankly glad to be rid of them. You ask that they get a fair trial? You have to get kidding. This was serious business."

"According to Western scholars, as well as Iraqi refugees and a British human rights organization, the 1963 coup was accompanied by a bloodbath. Using lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the C.I.A., the Baathists systematically murdered untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite -- killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated. No one knows the exact toll, but accounts agree that the victims included hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers and other professionals as well as military and political figures."

So Saddam learned how to mass murder Iraqis as an employee of the CIA. It was the 60s! Badr Shakir al Sayyab surely knew of these events. He died of a degenerative nervous disorder at the end of 1964, almost two years after Saddam and his gang killed Abdul Karim Qasim. His poem "The Informer" could have been about Saddam and the Iraqis who were determined to imprison or kill Iraqi communists:

I am what you want: I am contemptible
The shoe shiner for the conquerors,
and the vendor of blood
and conscience for tyrants.
I am a crow
feeding off the corpses of chicken.
I am destruction,
I am ruination!
The lip of the harlot
is more chaste than my heart,
and the wings of flies
are purer and warmer than my hands.
As you wish...
I am contemptible!.."

The Arabs apparently do not understand that Saddam was an informer, that he became the tyrant, the conqueror wannabe. Saddam led Iraq to destruction, to ruination! Saddam and his gang of thieves and thugs were contemptible!

Update: Badr Shakir al-Sayyab "started his career as a Marxist, but reverted to mainstream nationalism without ever becoming fanatical."

12 comments :

C.H. said...

Mojo,

Do you ever think its a lost cause trying to explain reality to people who refuse to listen?

Iraqi Mojo said...

Yes. But the more I read, the more I learn, and that's good.

Anonymous said...

Stupid back in 91 the US did not stay in Iraq. The US bombed Iraq and all the Arabs were against it stupid. How many times do i have to tell you the same thing stupid before you understand. In 2003 the US disbanded the army, police, and state and therefore everyone in the world was able to show up. Now stupid that includes the Mossad terrorists, Shia terrorist militias, and luckily it was easier for the Arabs to go to Iraq to help the Iraqi resistance. Arabs would have preferred if the invasion never took place and Iraq remained a state but since it was destroyed they had an obligation to help the resistance and they did and are doing what they can.

You are stupid. You are sick. You support mass murder. You supported the tyrant Bush and Blair. You supported the murder of the Iraqis. You supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq. You are deranged. You are diseased. And you are stupid.

You are so stupid you do not realize Arabs will never never never allow a foreigner to occupy them Your American masters can hang around for a generation or two at most but we will fight for a thousand years and when Iraq is free we will put the traitors in the trash where they belong.

I love Starbucks :)

Anonymous said...

Learn Arabic stupid and then go read this poem in Arabic and you will understand what Iraqis think of traitors. Arabs were never conquered and never will be. Instead of sitting behind a computer in California why not put on your army boots and go help the side you want to help stupid. You seem angry maybe you can release some of that anger stupid. I am telling you right now the Arabs will never stop fighting. Generation after generation, century after century we will keep fighting until the foreign occupation ends. I guarantee you stupid that your American masters have neither the balls, the stomach or the money to fight for as long as we can fight.

"arab jarab...starbucks....honor killings....saddam....sunni extremists....i love america...i love america....starbucks....saddam...arab jarab..."

Please do not ever change stupid

Iraqi Mojo said...

Yes the US left the Sunni dictator in charge of Iraq, after they destroyed its infrastructure and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. The Arab "resistance" was ok with that, evidently. They were not ok when Americans captured Saddam and put him on trial for crimes against humanity. The "resistance" had to show the world that life for Iraqis was much better under Saddam. The "resistance" did a good job, ghebby. You must be proud.

Iraqi Mojo said...

If the 3arab jarab continue to mass murder Iraqis, I just might go to Iraq and defend Iraqis from the murderous 3arab jarab, even though I'm a bit old for combat and I haven't shot a gun in many years. But I can always relearn. I would love to snipe a would-be suicide bomber in his fugly face as he crosses the Iraqi border. Yes that would be quite satisfying.

C.H. said...

"The "resistance" did a good job, ghebby. You must be proud."

They might have succeeded in making Iraqis miserable, but I have yet to see Iraqi Kurds or Shia Arabs rally to demand a Baathist return to power. In that regard, the resistance failed.

Habis said...

Iraqi Mojo said...
If the 3arab jarab continue to mass murder Iraqis, I just might go to Iraq and defend Iraqis from the murderous 3arab jarab, even though I'm a bit old for combat and I haven't shot a gun in many years.


You might? When will you decide? I really think you should go stupid. And a tough guy like you will not have any problem handling a gun even if he has not on a long time. Sure we believe that stupid. Are you going to learn Arabic first? You need to because training for the puppet police takes place in Jordan. You need to speak to the arabjarab in Jordan so you can get trained in puppet policing. Get to it stupid. Your presence might change the balance of power. lol.

C.H. said...

I agree Aton. But Habis is the one pulling his own string, lol. No one else cares what he has to say.

Dolly said...

C.H.:"I have yet to see Iraqi Kurds or Shia Arabs rally to demand a Baathist return to power. In that regard, the resistance failed."

You are assuming that everyone in the resistance is aiming to bring the Ba3th Party to power, which is not true.
The resistance is tasked with kicking out the oil-pirates, like the UK has fled already;
but after that, the different factions of the resistance differ in their vision for governance.

But what is perfectly obvious to everyone with a lick of sense, is that this current Iraqi so-called Government is bogus.

C.H. said...

"The resistance is tasked with kicking out the oil-pirates, like the UK has fled already"

They're trying to kick out China, Russia, and Italy?

Rula said...

really, are you guys serious; i believe we all brother and sister (all human being) who cares where we are from. tell you what am an iraqi girl, left iraq to and moved america since i was 9 months old. so i don't know any thing about Iraq, else then hearing from my father telling stories about bagdad and how arabs love each other and care about each other to death. am so sad about what i read now; i came to this page to learn about Badr shakir al sayab, but unfortunately i learning nothing but the word stupit. how sad....
i don't know what Badr shakir al sayab was talking about, but if you guys think that Iraqi Mojo was not correct then simply correct him do not use Offensive words, be polite please we all are human being.