The deranged sons of Salt

'Salt is an ancient Jordanian town, a short twenty minutes drive north of Amman. Salt was a trading center, once the most important settlement between the Jordan River and the desert lands to the east. In the Ottoman period, it was the capital of the Balqa region, which covered roughly the same territory as modern Jordan. It is a picturesque little town, with narrow streets and charming houses that have tall arched windows in the style of the late Ottoman period. During its heyday, Salt was a cosmopolitan, tolerant place where Muslims and Christians lived together in peace.

 

This town of many churches showed a different face in March 2005. During that month there was a much-publicized wake for a native son of Salt, Raed Mansour al-Banna, who had died on February 28 hundreds of miles to the south [sic, should be to the east], in the Iraqi city of Hilla, some sixty miles south of Baghdad. Raed was the suicide bomber who killed 125 Shias and wounded another 150 in one of the worst suicide bombings in postwar Iraq. His bomb had killed new recruits who were lined up waiting to join the Iraqi security forces. The government building that Raed targeted was next to an open-air market, so his bomb killed many women and children as well. Even by the standards of the gruesome violence that various "irreconcilables" were using to stop progress in post-Saddam Iraq, the massacre in Hilla was a brutal and shocking act of terror.

 

Salt, however, seemed to feel proud of its son. Many of the town's young men had done much as Raed had, going over the border during the previous two years in order to gather behind their countryman, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as their amir (commander [or literally 'prince']) and fight for him against the Americans and Shias. Raed's family held a three-day wake for him. Those who attended "celebrated" what they called his "martyrdom," as Jordanian newspapers reported. The Shias whom Raed had murdered drew no sympathy at the wake. For Raed to have been a martyr, those Shias by definition must have been infidels whose murder was justified. The tale of Hilla and Salt is emblematic of how Iraq has been changing the hearts and minds of some Sunnis in the region, and of the bloodletting that will define the boundaries between the two."  

 

The celebration in Salt brought retribution in Baghdad. Enraged by reports of the wake, a Shia mob attacked the Jordanian embassy on March 20. Iraq and Jordan exchanged strong words and withdrew their respective diplomats. Jordan, which had been Iraq's gateway to the world during the years of wars and sanctions, was now estranged from its neighbor. Sectarian tensions were driving old allies apart, replacing filial bonds of Arab identity and long-standing ties of commerce with deep suspicions. For Iraq's Shias, Jordan was the country of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the haven for Ba'thist exiles. For many in Jordan, Iraq was fast becoming a Shia country friendlier to Iran than to its Arab neighbors. Iraq would, however, be only a beginning.'

 

--Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival

Salt less than 15 miles from Palestinian border

I have been re-reading the last few chapters of Vali Nasr's The Shia Revival and I transcribed and posted the first part of the chapter titled The Battle For The Middle East, which is, among other things, about the men of Salt and their 'jihad' in Iraq. This may have been the last of Shia Revival posts. I encourage you to read the book for yourself. I was curious where Salt is relative to Amman, and it actually lies to the northwest of Amman, not to the north as Nasr wrote. I noticed that Salt is just more than 10 miles east of the Palestinian border. It amazes me that the deranged sons of Salt traveled about 500 miles to the east in order to kill Iraqis and Americans, considering they have lived a few miles from occupied Palestine all their worthless lives.

How Bahraini Shia reacted to Iraqi democracy

'Bahraini Shias reacted somewhat differently from their cousins in Iraq and Lebanon. They constitute more than 70 percent of their tiny island country’s population of 700,000 and consider themselves to be the salt of the earth ruled by a minority of Sunni settlers who invaded from Qatar in the eighteenth century. Since Bahrain gained its independence in 1970, Shias have been heavily involved in every coup attempt, street agitation, uprising, and reform movement in the Persian Gulf emirate. Trouble began in earnest in 1994 as the poor and politically marginalized Bahraini Shias protested their lack of jobs and rights. The government reacted brutally, jailing and exiling political and religious leaders and perpetuating the cycle of violence and repression.

In 1999 the country’s new ruler, Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa, decided to open up the political system. This happened at a time of Shia agitation that led to the imprisonment of the Shia leader, Sheikh Abdul-Amir al-Jamri. Eager to consolidate his rule in the face of unrest, the emir called for elections to give the country’s population a voice in governance. What he had in mind was not democratic but a parliament of notables that would allow him to control the population by coopting their leaders - “a cooptation of the effendis”, as Bahrainis called it dismissively. Many Bahrainis boycotted the elections, especially the restless Shia youth and those Shia activists who were enamored of the Iranian revolution and followed religious parties such as the al-Wifaq (the Accord) movement and the Front for Islamic Revolution in Bahrain (Al-Jibha al-Islamiya li’l-Tahrir al-Bahrayn). These voices instead called for a complete opening of the political system. Unhappy with limited access to power and the growing prominence of the Wahhabi brand of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood among Sunnis, the more radical elements in al-Wifaq and the Front began to agitate. The boycott allowed the minority Sunnis to take twenty-seven of the forty seats in the parliament, which only aggravated the situation.

Thus when the second Gulf war came, Bahrain was already restless. The Shia youth, jobless and resentful, looked like the youth of Sadr City. What they lacked was a Bahraini Muqtada al Sadr. Pictures of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei and Lebanon’s Ayatollah Muhammad Huayn Fadlallah adorned shops and homes. When a local newspaper printed an unflattering cartoon of Ayatollah Khamenei in July, 2005, large crowds marched in the capital, Manama, chanting, “Labeik Khamenei” (we are responding to your call, Khameini). Bahraini young people were not keen to follow the leadership their traditional elders, and less keen to heed their call for calmness and patience. Revolutionary fervor began to give place to democratic hope after Sistani began to clamor for “one person, one vote” and the Shia won the January 30 Iraq elections. As a measure of how closely Bahrainis now followed Iraq, in May 2004 large crowds protested the fighting between U.S. troops and the Mahdi Army in Najaf and Karbala. The mass of Bahraini Shias took the example of Iraq to heart and began to demand real democracy, which would mean a transfer of power to Shias and not just a “House of Lords” to legitimate the Sunni monarchy. In March and June 2005, thousands poured into the streets to ask for all-fledged democracy. They wanted what their numbers warranted, that is, to rule Bahrain just as their cosectarians were now ruling Iraq. Bahrain’s sectarian troubles will bear directly on Shia-Sunni relations in the UAE, Kuwait, and, most important, Saudi Arabia, whose Eastern Province sits a stone’s throw from the causeway that links Bahrain to the Arabian mainland.'

Liberal Pakistani minister murdered

NYT: "The only Christian minister in the Pakistan government was shot dead on Wednesday morning as he left his home in the capital to attend a cabinet meeting, an attack strikingly similar to the killing two months ago of another senior politician holding liberal views.

Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister of minorities, was shot eight times by gunmen who ambushed him as he stepped into his car, police officials said. A pamphlet written by a group of Taliban from the province of Punjab was found near the scene in a middle-class residential neighborhood, the officials said."

It looks like the NYT is wrong. There is another Christian minister in Pakistan's parliament, a woman: "And then there was one. Of the three brave Pakistani politicians who stood up for Aasia Bibi, an embattled Christian woman flung on to death row last year, just one is still alive: Sherry Rehman. The liberal parliamentarian from Karachi, known for her glamorous style and outspoken views, spearheaded efforts to reform the much-abused blasphemy law after Bibi, a mother of four, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad."

Also the NYT article says "The [blasphemy] law, introduced in the 1970s, calls for the death penalty for those accused of speaking against the Prophet Muhammad." According to this article, the blasphemy laws were introduced in the 80s, not the 70s: 'Section 295C was introduced into the Pakistani legal system in the 1980s by the military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq as part of his broader effort to Islamize laws in Pakistan. It stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." '

It should be noted, in defense of the NYT, that Zia-ul-Haq, the schmuck who introduced the blasphemy laws, put himself in charge of Pakistan in 1977, and I'm sure the schmuck began his Islamization policies immediately: "General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد ضیاء الحق ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976. After widespread civil disorder, he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a bloodless coup d'état on 5 July 1977 and became the state's third ruler to impose martial law. He initially ruled as Chief Martial Law Administrator, but later installed himself as the President of Pakistan in September 1978."

I did not know that Zia-ul-Huq had a role in the Black September massacre until I read the above. More on that:

On September 15, King Hussein declared martial law. The next day, Jordanian tanks (the 60th Armored Brigade of the Jordanian Army) attacked the headquarters of Palestinian organizations in Amman; the army also attacked camps in Irbid, Salt, Sweileh, Baq'aa, Wehdat and Zarqa. Then the head of Pakistani training mission to Jordan, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan), took command of the 2nd division.[13][14] However the Jordanians could not devote all their attention to the Palestinians. The 3rd Armoured Division of the Iraqi Army had remained in Jordan after the 1967 war. The Iraqi regime sympathised with the Palestinians, and it was unclear whether the division would intervene on the part of the Palestinians. Thus the 99th Brigade of the Jordanian 3rd Armoured Division had to be retained to watch the Iraqi division.

Very interesting. No wonder the US was cool with the Jordanian king and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Iraq's culture of the qundara

Anthony Shadid wrote an interesting article in which he discusses the culture of the qundara (shoe) in Iraq. It is sad how easily some Iraqis resort to violence.

A friend once called it the culture of the “kundara,” the word here for shoe.

“When anyone is against you, when anyone has differences with me, I will put a kundara in his mouth, I will shove a kundara down his throat, I will hit him with a kundara,” he said in 2006, long before the spectacle of President Bush’s visit to Baghdad.

“We live in a kundara culture,” he said.

The roots of political violence run deep in Iraq, long a turbulent frontier between Romans and Persians, Ottomans and Safavids and, now, Americans and Iranians.

The Lebanese American journalist did not mention the role of the Arabs in the history of sectarian conflict in Iraq, even though thousands of "mujahideen" from Morocco to Salt to KSA volunteered to become suicide bombers in Iraq and ended up killing mostly Iraqis. Nevertheless Shadid wrote a brutally honest article:

In late-night musings, some here will find a metaphor for it in the rivers. For Egypt, with its reputation for humor and revelry, the Nile was that country’s good fortune, surging waters bringing farms to the desert. The Tigris, an artist once told me, destroyed when it flooded, reckless and unpredictable as it was. It left hard personalities in its wake, delivering Iraqis their well-deserved reputation for toughness.

Others are quick to volunteer the words of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the medieval governor of Iraq, who infamously called his subjects “people of discord and hypocrisy.” “I see heads before me that are ripe and ready for the plucking,” he told them, “and I am the one to pluck them, and I see blood glistening between the turban and the beards.”

People of discord and hypocrisy? Sounds like the Arabs in general. Are there bigger hypocrites than the people who inhabit the heart of the Arabian peninsula? I doubt it. I have written much about Arab hypocrisy on my blog, and yes many Iraqis are hypocrites too. Shadid goes on to quote Joost Hiltermann, who said correctly that Iraq's culture of political violence was inculcated by Saddam's regime:

The medieval governor had a modern incarnation in Saddam Hussein, whose lieutenants once executed a scholarly dissident by driving nails into his forehead. But even Mr. Hussein’s tyranny, with its traumatic legacy, goes only so far in capturing the reflexive pivot to violence.

Before he took power, politics were still existential. In 1963, when the Baath Party overthrew Abdel-Karim Qassem, who himself toppled the monarchy, Baathists sought to eradicate his Communist allies, killing and torturing thousands in a three-day frenzy whose legacy, even now, colors sentiments between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs. After Mr. Hussein’s fall, the country still reeled from the aftermath of war with Iran in the 1980s, when more than a million Iraqi men bore arms and 600,000 others served in militias. In all, a tenth of Iraq’s population became soldiers, schooled in violence.

In vastly asymmetrical ways, Mr. Hussein’s opponents in exile practiced a style of politics the dictator himself honed — the insularity and secrecy of a clandestine movement — and the dissident leaders brought it with them when they returned after the American invasion.

Time has to pass, the optimists say. But even the hopeful will lament that generosity is sparse across a landscape haunted by its traumas and still demarcated by their legacies.

“There is a desire for open politics,” said Joost Hiltermann, a director at the International Crisis Group. “But there is a tendency to intolerance that is deeply ingrained by the former regime and by the reality of opponents fighting that regime.”

“It’s very much the political culture inculcated by the former regime,” he added.

Iraq Pundit did not like Shadid's article, but he concedes there is some truth to it. He points out there is political corruption and violence in every country. It is a good point. Iraq Pundit:

It's hard for me to see western analysis as anything but the western reporters and other experts looking down their noses at Iraqis. If they had respect for Iraqi people, they would not focus on the anger of some who are justifiably angry at the violence of recent years. Of course one can and should mention that violence. But there is so much more to Iraq than some murderous thugs kidnapping and killing civilians.

Even in America corruption exists in high levels of government. Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is a good example. But I think it's ok to admit that Iraq is in general much worse on the scale of corruption and political violence.

Iraq's culture of the qundara is the primary reason I did not write about my father's run for Parliament in this year's election. My father returned from Iraq over the weekend. His party did not receive enough votes to win a single seat in Parliament. He is naturally disappointed.

I thought about the possible consequences of publicly endorsing my dad. Most readers of my blog are not Iraqi anyway, and I would guess that at least half of the Iraqis who read my blog disagree with my opinions. A commenter who calls himself "Saddam Hussein" has encouraged another (Jordanian American) commenter to go to my house and "kick my ass". These are the kind of idiots who contribute to the culture of the qundara. These are the kind of people who killed Mithal al Alusi's sons and continue to attack government employees, including Iraqi judges. These are the kind of people who would attack my father just because he is my father. So in the end I decided that posting about my father's campaign would not have helped him and I thought it may even hurt him.

My dad is disappointed in his loss, but he wishes the best for Iraq. Yesterday I talked with my dad and we agreed that a win for Allawi would hopefully appease the Baathists, at least, and hopefully there will be less violence and less shoe-throwing so that Iraq can return to normalcy and economic growth.

Starbucks in the Arab World

Over the years I have heard Arabs and Arab Americans calling to boycott Starbucks because its CEO (a Jew!) allegedly shares his wealth with Israel.  As Arabs and Arab Americans continue to preach "resistance" and hate the "puppet" government of Iraq, and as Arab terrorists continue to wage war on innocent Iraqis, often targeting small cafes, in nine Arab countries customers buy frappuccinos without worrying about terrorism or "resistance":  

• 24 Starbucks in Egypt, which has cooperated with Israel in stopping weapons smuggling into Gaza, and has been accused of strangling Gaza's economy.
• More than 90 Starbucks in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc), host to a US Air Force base. 
• 10 Starbucks in Qatar, along with Al Jazeera headquarters and a very important US military base called "CENTCOM". 
• 71 Starbucks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including 26 in Mecca (holy cappuccino!). In 1991 KSA hosted almost a million foreign troops, 73% of whom were American.
• 16 Starbucks in Lebanon. 
• 10 Starbucks in Jordan, home of Zarqawi and the deranged sons of Salt.
• 12 Starbucks in Bahrain, host to a US Naval base. 
• 7 Starbucks in Oman, which makes its military bases available for use by the US.  
• 72 Starbucks in Kuwait, which makes its air bases available for use by the US and is also host to a few US Army bases.  

And there have been more than 1,700 suicide bombings in Iraq.

PS: As an afterthought (again!) I thought I should explain that in 2007: 

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

And in 2005: 

Who are the suicide bombers of Iraq? By the radicals' account, they are an internationalist brigade of Arabs, with the largest share in the online lists from Saudi Arabia and a significant minority from other countries on Iraq's borders, such as Syria and Kuwait. The roster of the dead on just one extremist Web site reviewed by The Washington Post runs to nearly 250 names, ranging from a 13-year-old Syrian boy said to have died fighting the Americans in Fallujah to the reigning kung fu champion of Jordan, who sneaked off to wage war by telling his family he was going to a tournament.

Since 2004, Iraq has been the only country in the Arab world that is ruled by Shia.

I had to revise this post a few times because I kept finding more Arab countries with Starbucks and it took some time researching the American military presence in each country.  Also I tried to read it from the perspective of somebody who has little understanding of the history and sectarian nature of the conflict.

Are the Arabs not the biggest hypocrites in the world?

Saddam Street in Jordan

Jordan, the home of Zarqawi and the deranged Sons of Salt, once again proves to the world how much they love Iraqis.

Naming a street after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a city in Jordan has sparked an outrage in Baghdad and drawn sharp criticism from officials in Kuwait.

A volley of condemnations followed a day after Jordanian authorities named a street "Saddam" in the Western city of al-Karak.

Iraqi lawmakers and politicians condemned the move as "inciting sedition" against the Iraqi nation. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq also censured the naming and called for a restraint of Iraq's ties with Jordan.

An official for Kuwait's Foreign Ministry also asked Jordanian officials to explain the naming of a street after the Baathist dictator.'

I would laugh if Jordan had not exported so many "mujahideen" to kill Americans and mass murder Iraqis for overthrowing Saddam, their hero, and establishing a democracy.

Thanks Nobody for posting the link!

US & UK "chasing a phantom enemy"

So it turns out Al Qaeda does not exist as an organization. No surprise there. Wahhabi terrorism, however, has caused much death and destruction in Iraq and other parts of the world. Takfir and the notion that non-Muslims (from the Wahhabi perspective) are infidels or apostates must be combatted through education (and satire). Those who are influenced by Wahhabism and are determined to cause harm to innocent people must be arrested and jailed before they commit crimes.



This is a comment (Oct 5) for this post:

'If you have watched the video, please point out any inaccuracies you find. Where did the name "Al Qaeda" come from, if not from bin Ladin?

Thanks anan for pointing out that bin Ladin did set up an organization in 1998. In 1990 he volunteered to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait and urged the Saudis not to invite infidels into the House of Islam. I wonder if he and his mujahideen really could have expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. That would have been an interesting turn in that story, if the Saudis had taken bin Ladin's offer before inviting the Americans.

The reason I posted this video is because what is discussed in it, including legal cases, seems to be true. I also wanted to emphasize that even IF Al Qaeda doesn't have an organization in the traditional sense, the Arabs and Muslims who were influenced by Wahhabi ideas were quite willing to be allied with a group that was responsible for the most horrendous sectarian violence in the history of the world. This video doesn't change the fact that jarab from Morocco to Salt to Riyadh volunteered to mass murder Iraqis. It doesn't change the fact that fundamentalist Muslims blew up Budhhist statues in Afghanistan and mass murdered Shia in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's also interesting to see the reaction of some Arabs to this video (and the person who posted it - "BBC now admits al qaeda never existed"), as if there are no Wahhabi terrorists who blow up markets in Iraq, as if 19 Arabs did not hijack planes and fly them into tall buildings in NYC 8 years ago.'

Update (Oct 6): Anand sent me this via email:

'AQ was a highly capable organization. It's name was written in the founding notes for the meeting in 1998 that formed the organization. There are detailed records of these founding meetings.

The Jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s has 13 major Mujahadeen groups. The 7 sunni extremist ones were:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Unity_of_Afghanistan_Mujahideen (they were backed by the Pakistani and Saudi governments)

One of the important ones was:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maktab_al-Khadamat
This was founded by Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam in 1984. This was a very large and well funded group. It was very real; and a feared enemy of the Soviet Union. It also participated in killing Shiiites.


Abdullah Azzam and Osama Bin Laden formed Al Qaeda in March 1988. Again, it was an important group from the start.

OBL (Osama Bin Laden) really took off in 1998 when he founded the international Islamic front. {He was emir for the entire group.} This was a huge group with arguably over a hundred thousand fighters around the world. Fortunately for the world (especially India, China, Russia, Iran, the Stans, and the Shia), the dumb Takfiri extremists attacked America too. As a result they suffered a body blow after 9/11. Al Qaeda linked networks are much weaker now than they were at their zenith (1998-2001.)'

Iraq's neighbors a "lurking menace"

But Iraq must talk to them and try to be "neighborly" with them, and the US must help. David Ignatius writes:

The Baker-Hamilton recommendations are mostly forgotten, swept away by President George W. Bush's 2007 surge of U.S. troops. That certainly improved security, but the recent bombings in Iraq are a reminder that the surge didn't usher in a new era of peace and love. Political reconciliation is still more slogan than reality -- and the neighbors are more a lurking menace than Baghdad's partners.

He is certainly right. Let's review the list of Iraq's neighbors:

Turkey

Lying to the north of Iraq, Turkey has been the least menacing. Turkey has enjoyed good relations with Israel, Europe, and the US. Turkey has a robust tourism industry, and they've been able to contain extremists and provide relatively good security. But in Turkey, you may be arrested for teaching or studying Kurdish. Recently Turkey has bombed Kurdish militia inside Iraq, and most worrying, the Turks have dammed the Tigris and Euphrates at several places, squeezing Iraq's historically life-sustaining rivers and resulting in more severe droughts in Iraq. But in a country that has experienced at least 1,200 suicide bombings in the last 6 years, Turkey's offenses seem minor.

Iran (aka Persia)

Going clockwise on the map, we see Iran to the east, which shares 1,458 kilometers of border with Iraq. Persia occupied the land between two rivers for almost two centuries, and in 539 BC, Cyrus of Persia sacked Babylon and freed the Jews.

It can be argued that Iran has had the greatest influence on Iraq, especially since the rise of Khomeini and his Islamic Revolution. In 1965 Khomeini moved to Najaf, home of the Imam Ali shrine, and there he lectured and instilled in young Shia the notion of Islamic revolution and Islamic government. By the late 60s he became a marja taqlid or "model for imitation" for hundreds of thousands of Shia. By 1975 support for Khomeini the leader of the Islamic Revolution had grown in Iran and among the Iraqi Shia. The Ayatollah was forced out of Iraq by Iraqi VP Saddam Hussein in 1978, and in January 1979 the Shah left Iran. The following month Khomeini moved back to Iran and became the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, changing the course of history in the region for decades to come.

In the 70s in Iraq the Islamic Da3wa Party had gained popularity, and they too wanted an Islamic government, which put them at odds with the ruling Ba3ath Party and Saddam Hussein, who pushed aside his President-cousin Ahmed Hassan al Bakr and took control of Baghdad in 1979. By the summer of 1980, Saddam and his security apparatuses had murdered and expelled tens of thousands of Iraqi Shia and pushed Da3wa out of Iraq. In September 1980 Saddam's Iraq invaded Iran, beginning a horrible war that cost a million lives by 1988 and ruined the economies of both countries. In the 80s Iraqi Shia who were able fled by the hundreds of thousands to the US, Europe, and of course to Iran.

Today the Iranian influence in Iraq is even greater, with Da3wa in charge of Baghdad, Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council party garnering about 10% support among Iraqis, and with Muqtada al Sadr studying quietly in Qum in an effort to become the next big Ayotallah. Iran was happy to see the end of Saddam's dictatorship, but they did not want to see the the Iraq become a colony of the US. Instead, some Iraqis fear that Iraq will eventually become a colony of Iran.

Kuwait

In July 1990 I became a citizen of the United States of America. Less than one month after I became naturalized, Saddam's Iraq invaded Kuwait. After Bush Sr. crossed his line in the sand and built a case for war against Iraq, my father became afraid. For a while there my dad really thought I might be drafted, if it ever became a real war, which it never did become. It was interesting to see my father go through the effort to find out if I could ever be drafted into such a war. The answer was no, I couldn't be drafted because I could be considered an "conscientious objector". It turns out my help would not be required anyway, as the US military, with the help of the British and many Arab states, bombed Iraq into the Stone Age, and making life very difficult for Iraqis for many years to come.

On the face of it poor little Kuwait looks to be the least menacing of Iraq's neighbors. There are unknown numbers of Shia in Kuwait, and many of them are Iraqis who fled Saddam's tyranny. But Kuwait is ruled by a Sunni Arab family, and in general they were friendly with Saddam and shared his fear of Iran. So what happened to the love? Saddam invaded Kuwait because, basically, Kuwait was being a punk ass bitch (please pardon the vernacular), giving money (the Kuwaitis say loaning) to Saddam to fight Iran, and then after the war, after Iraq's economy was devastated, Kuwait produced oil way beyond their OPEC quota, and thus resulting in lower oil prices, which hurt Iraq's bottom line. The Iraqis also claimed Kuwait was slant-drilling into Iraq's oil field.

In the end Saddam invaded Kuwait and stole many of its riches and refused to leave Kuwait. However he intentionally kept his Republican Guard out of Kuwait, which was a wise move for him, because he would need them to put down the Shia rebellion after the war and keep himself in power. The allied forces, led by the US, pounded Iraq's army, first by 40 days of air strikes, and then by a ground invasion, killing tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, and accidentally, of course, killing thousands of Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi army was expelled from Kuwait, and on their way out of Iraq, Saddam had his guys burned nearly 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, creating a huge environmental disaster. The US military, led by Colin Powell and Norman Swartzkoff, won a quick war in Iraq and could have easily overthrown the Iraqi dictator, but in the end Bush decided to allow Saddam to live, and ordered US troops not to intervene in the Shia rebellion. It is said Bush's decision was influenced by the Saudis, who did not want to see the Shia take control of Iraq.

Today Kuwait has good relations with Iraq, and the two countries have restored diplomatic ties. Kuwait was the only non-Iraqi Arab country to support the American overthrow of Saddam. They understood Saddam's tyranny very well. But Kuwait still wants its money back, even though Iraq's debt to Kuwait was racked up by Saddam's regime, and many Wahhabi-influenced Kuwaitis have entered Iraq and mass murdered Iraqis since 2003.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Saudis, the founders of Wahhabism, have been a royal pain in Iraqis' asses for decades. An analysis in 2007 revealed that half of suicide bombers in Iraq came from Saudi Arabia. The majority of the hijackers on 9/11 (80%) were also Saudi. The two statistics, from two very different places, have one thing in common: Wahhabi terrorism.

KSA never wanted to see the Shia take control of Iraq, and they have ben the biggest funders of the insurgency in Iraq. The Saudis were also the biggest funders of the war between Iraq and Iran.



The Saudis did not want to see Saddam take control of Kuwait, but they did not want to see the Shia take control of Baghdad either. Thus the Saudi government, led by King Fahd, urged Bush Sr. to keep Saddam in power in 1991, and thus they funded the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq after 2003, their clerics preaching "resistance" against the "infidel" occupier and the "agents of Iran", this despite the presence of many Iranians, Arab Shia, and Americans in the Arabian peninsula. The US launched two wars on Iraq from CENTCOM in Doha, Qatar, but Qatar enjoys peace, even Starbucks, while Baghdad burns. Nevertheless the Wahhabis sent hundreds of brainwashed suicide bombers to Iraq, to murder mostly Iraqi Shia.

With full control of the oil that Saudi Shia live on and near, the Saudi royals are not interested in democracy, and they are not interested in restoring diplomatic ties with the new Iraq. “To isolate itself from Iraq, Saudi Arabia has signed a $1 billion contract with the European defense company EADS, for the construction of a 900-kilometer [562-mile] fence." Iraqis wait anxiously and hope the fence will protect them from the backward Wahhabi cultists.

Jordan

I've heard the weather in Amman is beautiful. In the summer of 1991 my mother and sister visited Amman to see my aunts and cousins who fled Iraq earlier that year. By 2000 approximately half of my relatives had fled the wars and tyranny of Saddam Hussein, starting new lives elsewhere, mostly in the UK. I don't understand why those refugees did not receive the same attention that our Arab brothers have paid to recent Iraqi refugees from the current war. Jordan deserves praise for accepting such a large number of refugees, and not just Iraqi. 60% of Jordan's population is of Palestinian descent. Twice there were large influxes of Palestinian refugees into Jordan - in 1948 and 1967. Also twice there were large influxes of Iraqi refugees - 1991-1992 and 2005-2007. Iraqi Baathists have fled to Amman in large numbers.

But there is a dark side to Jordan's relationship with Iraq. The person most responsible for inciting the sectarian violence in Iraq was a Jordanian terrorist named Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He was born and raised in Zarqa, not far from occupied Palestine. Even closer to occupied Palestine is the Jordanian town of Salt, whose deranged sons were compelled to join their mujahideen-brothers in Iraq, to attack the new Iraqi government and its security forces, and to participate in the most gruesome sectarian conflict the world has seen in decades.

The Jordanian government, to its credit, has fought extremists and has at times been at the receiving end of Salafi terrorists like Zarqawi, but in my opinion they have not done enough to fight extremist and backward ideology in their country. Honor killings are still common in Jordan, and when the killers are punished, they are in most cases not punished nearly severely enough.

Syria

Syria is an enigma. Its population is 80% Sunni Arab, but for decades it has been ruled by a Baathist Alawi family that has had cozy relations with Iran since the Islamic Revolution. Syria's alliance with Iran was the reason for the split between Saddam and Hafez al Assad. Recently I asked my cousin if Alawis are true Shia, and I asked him if they are true Shia, how could they allow so many "mujahideen" to enter Iraq via Damascus and cause so much death and destruction against their Shia brethren in Iraq? "NO" the Allawites are not true Shia, he said, and even if Assad wanted to prevent Baathists and Wahhabis from planning and coordinating in Damascus, he couldn't because most Syrians are Sunni Arab, and many of them have been influenced by Baathism or the Muslim Brotherhood and maybe Wahhabism. So it is even more ironic that Syria has been supported by Shia-dominated Iran.

Syria has been home to the largest number of Iraqi refugees since 2003, and although their existence in Syria has been relatively peaceful, many Iraqis in Damascus are worried about raised tensions between the two governments. Iraqi PM Maliki has blamed Damascus for the August 19 explosions in Baghdad. In the end, the Syrian regime may decide to normalize relations with Iraq at least for economic reasons.

This Ramadhan we have seen fewer violent deaths in Iraq than in previous years, but in general Iraqis continue to suffer as a result of sectarian conflicts than seem never to end. This year the average number of deaths per day from suicide attacks and vehicle bombs (7.8) is still higher than in 2004 (5.2), but the number of deaths per day from gunfire/executions is 4.6, the lowest since 2003. With continuing violence and an inept government in Baghdad that still cannot provide security or 24-hour a day electricity to all Iraqis, there's not much to cheer about in Iraq these days. Many Iraqis are looking forward to the crucial elections in January, and many are hoping for real change in Iraq.