The ayatollah told me he was sorry that our churches had been bombed, and he said that a group of the highest church leaders of all the denominations in Iraq had met together and agreed to make a substantial contribution to help us rebuild our churches. This was such a gracious and magnanimous offer, and I want them to know how much it means to our people. And I thank all of them from the bottom of my heart.
But in that regard, I would also say to those who destroyed our places of worship, who killed, kidnapped, blackmailed, and robbed our people, and who used violence and hatred against the Christian community, that we pray to our Father in heaven that he will forgive them and lead them to a better way of thinking. If we want to build a new and better Iraq, then we must learn to live together in peace and work together for the common good. We cannot continue the habits of hatred and revenge that Saddam employed, and that were accepted under his corrupt regime. To go in that direction will only lead to more bloodshed, war, and disaster. I pray we can work together to find a better way.
A New Strategy
I also want to say a word about the Kurdish people of Iraq who suffered so greatly under Saddam. Today the people of Kurdistan, in the north of Iraq, are led by Massoud Barzani, the president of that region, and Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani. No people in Iraq have lost more than the Kurds, yet they have been the most forgiving and tolerant. Literally, hundreds of thousands of their people were killed, and they were constantly under attack for decades. They now have a strong militia to protect them from future attacks, but they never resorted to revenge or random violence because of what had happened to them under Saddam.
I want to thank these people and their leaders for the wisdom and courage they’ve shown, particularly in their relationship with my people, the indigenous Christians of northern Iraq. Mr. Sarkis Agha Jan, who serves as deputy prime minister and finance minister of the Kurdistan region, has also been extraordinarily helpful to my people. The majority of Assyrian Christians live today in the Kurdish regions, and we have been respected by the Kurds and treated fairly. So on behalf of my people, I want to say thank you to President Barzani and all those in Kurdistan for their acts of tolerance and good faith. They are a credit to our nation.
Saddam’s policies corrupted Iraq but they also condemned it to destruction. Even a man like Tariq Aziz, who was smart and very efficient, was corrupted by Saddam, and he used his skills to prop up a regime that was built on lies. I’m sad to say that, even now from his prison cell, he continues to support Saddam. I have to believe that his behavior is motivated by fear and the belief that, so long as Saddam is still alive, no one is safe to speak against him.
But look what that sort of loyalty has accomplished. Iraq is a big country, as large as the state of California, right in the middle of the Middle East. Yet we had no friends in the region. Iraq was a pariah nation, the enemy of everyone, and not one of the countries around us trusted Saddam or the regime—and for good reason. At one time or another, Saddam had attacked every one of them. He declared himself to be the new Nebuchadnezzar, and he dreamed of one day becoming the emperor of all the Arabs. How could anyone ever trust such a man?
What America did on March 19, 2003, was the first big step in restoring the dignity and reputation of Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom began the process of removing an evil regime and helping the people of Iraq to come back and live in the world instead of living out of the world. Yes, there are still dangerous insurgents around, and the streets and alleys of Iraq are not safe for everyone. There are wicked men who want to stop the march of freedom and democracy in the world, and they have had a measure of success. But thank God, at last we’re on the right track, and we will win this war one way or the other. We need time to put the pieces together, but I believe that in time we will learn how to use our freedom and democracy in the right way.
The truth is, Iraq is a wealthy country. We have water, land, oil, and many other mineral resources. In addition, we are industrious people who love life and we know how to work. If we can move beyond the terrors of the past and commit ourselves to a more optimistic future, I’m convinced we can transform Iraq once again into a beautiful country in the middle of the Middle East that will be a light shining in darkness. One day many people will look at Iraq and say that we are an example to the world of what democracy can do. I truly believe that day is coming.
The Greening of Iraq
You know, there was a time not very long ago when the central region of my country was a beautiful green forest. There were acres and acres of trees. The countryside was laced with rivers and streams that abounded with wildlife. There were fish in the rivers, beautiful birds in the trees, deer in the forests, and other creatures living among the rocks and hidden places. It was like the Garden of Eden, but then war came and many of those trees were burned. The homes of those who lived and worked in the forests were destroyed. And because of so many wars over so many years, that paradise disappeared. Military roads were built so tanks and armored cars could pass through. And fires were often deliberately set to clear away timber and everything else that interfered with the soldiers’ line of fire. There was no beauty in that world; instead, the land within the forests became just another killing field.
The area remained that way for many years; but do you know what’s happening now? Since the liberation of Iraq in 2003, the forests have started growing again. Debris is being cleared away, and the streams are beginning to flow. Bushes and wildflowers are beginning to flourish; they’re still small in some places, but the trees are growing, and the forest creatures are returning. For me this is an image of what’s happening to my country. For too many years we were trampled down by tyrants and dictators. Our souls were like deserts. We lost our capacity for beauty. But at last, freedom is coming to Iraq and there is beauty once again.
What’s happening to the forests can also happen with human beings. We will need time to grow strong again. Beautiful things cannot survive forever in a desert, and for too long our spirits were turned into a wasteland. But if you saw the excitement on the faces of the men and women of Iraq during the recent elections—despite the threats of terrorists, and even as people were being killed while going to the polls—then you have seen the face of hope. And this spirit is awakening once again.
War, terrorism, death, and hatred will never bring us peace and prosperity. The people know this now, and they’re beginning to resist the lies they’ve been told by the insurgents and propagandists who are nothing but merchants of death. If the forests can return to life and become green again, then I believe our nation can come back to life as well. And one day, very soon I hope, our ancient land— which was the cradle of civilization—will be green and beautiful once more.
The hope I have now is that democracy and freedom will help lead us back to reality. Because the culture of the Middle East is essentially tribal, the natural tendency is for people to be intensely loyal to their own tribe. They’ll get along with members of their tribe as long as it’s convenient, but it doesn’t take a lot of provocation to make them want to fight. So we see Shia against Sunni, Shia against Shia, Sunni against Sunni, and even Sunni and Shia against everyone else. Somehow in the process of rebuilding the nation, our people must learn how to love each other, or at the very least, to live with each other in peace.
Love and Forgiveness
The number one problem in Iraq today is that there’s too much hatred and too little love in the hearts of the people. Somehow our people, in all parts of the country and in every tribe and faction, must learn to love their neighbors and to forgive and forget what has happened in the past. Saddam taught us to hate, but hatred is a sickness and we don’t want to be a sick nation anymore. Our hearts and minds ought to be full of love, especially now as we’re trying to turn the country around.
Hatred, jealousy, and envy will eat us up from the inside. They do nothing to the other person. Those bitter emotions are like a crippling disease that eats our nerves, our minds, and our bodie
s, and leaves us empty inside. If we really want to improve our lives in Iraq, then we need to plant love in the hearts of our people, and that’s why I’ve chosen to work for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. I know now that there’s only one way to solve our problems, and that’s through creative dialogue, a commitment to peace, and openness to reconciliation.
Here’s something I learned when I was a farmer. When you plant a garden, you have to have a plan. It begins with the idea that you want a crop to grow. When you learn how to make the crop grow, you soon discover that it’s not just a matter of putting seeds in the ground. You have to choose the right time and place, and then you have to prepare the soil. When you plant the seeds, you nourish them, water them, and protect them. And when the young plants begin to sprout, you nourish them and take steps to prevent weeds and insects from taking over and destroying them.
In due course, when the crop is ripe and it’s time for harvest, all your hard work will pay off and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Even so, not every plant in that field is going to survive. You will lose some plants, especially those around the edges where they were exposed to drought or insufficient attention. The heat will weaken or kill some of your plants, and predators may take a few more. But if you’ve done your job well and tended the field with love and patience, you will not only have an abundant harvest but you will have seeds for the next season. Then, with the blessings of God and the spring rains, you can continue to expand your fields and your harvest, year after year.
In some ways this simple metaphor describes my hope for nurturing and expanding peace in the Middle East. No one farmer can do all of this, of course. But if enough people agree to take up the challenge, and if we can harness our native wisdom and vast natural resources, and then turn our energies toward making peace instead of making war, I believe there’s no limit to what we can accomplish. Will it be hard work? Yes, of course. Ask any farmer who has ever harvested a crop if the work was hard. Ask him to show you his hands: they’re rough and calloused because the work is unrelenting— from dawn to dusk most days. But he knows that there will be a reward at the end if he is faithful, and that’s why he does it.
Our problem is not that we don’t have the resources. We have plenty to work with, and we have the talents of many tribes and nations. Our problem is that too many Iraqis prefer to live by the old rules of hate, fear, and distrust, and nothing can grow in that garden. One time I asked a well-respected Iraqi physician who was living and working in the West if he would consider coming back to Iraq someday. He said no. So I asked him, “Would you consider coming back if they gave you a high position in the ministry of health?” Again he said no, and then he added, “I wouldn’t go back if they gave me all of Iraq!”
The problem was that he remembered what it was like in Iraq under Saddam, and he sees the headlines each day. He hears about bombings, killings, and people fighting because of their religious or political differences. And on top of that the streets are unsafe and the traffic is terrible. But then he said something that hurt very much. He said, “It wasn’t until I came to the West that I knew what it means to be a human being.” What a sad statement for my country; but what an opportunity for us if we recognize the problems and begin working together to transform Iraq into the kind of country it ought to be. With God’s help, I believe it can be done.
A Light in Darkness
After the terrorist attacks in London in 2005, there were people celebrating in the streets of Baghdad, Amman, and Riyadh. I’m ashamed of the way those people behaved. They were proud that Muslims had done this evil deed, and they were celebrating when they should have been hiding their faces in shame. This was also how they reacted on September 11, 2001, when the planes struck New York and Washington.
If you had seen Iraqi television on that day, you would have been embarrassed for us. The people were boasting so loudly without realizing that millions of people around the world were watching them, and without ever thinking that one day they would have to answer for their behavior. That day eventually came, in March 2003, and we all paid a heavy price for it. But, instead of punishment and torture, we were given something else. They gave us democracy and freedom.
Some may ask why I’ve never spoken about all these things before, and why I decided that now is the time to write about it. The answer is that I could never have written about any of these things while I was serving in the military of Iraq. As I said at the beginning, I was a loyal soldier and fighter pilot during my military career. There were many things that I didn’t like about that job: I was given orders many times that I would have preferred to disobey; but I did not disobey because I was an officer who had raised his hand and sworn to serve my country.
I love my country, and I only want good things to happen in Iraq from now on. Even though I am a member of a minority in Iraq, as an Assyrian and a Christian, I have always tried to be faithful and do my duty at all times. I wanted to fulfill my commitment as an officer and a gentleman to the best of my ability. If I had tried to write or speak about the situation in Iraq during those years, it would have been propaganda. It would have been just one more boast for a regime the whole world knew was corrupt and destined to fail. And I would never have written such a book.
The work of peacemaking has just begun, and there’s so much that needs to happen before my country can stand shoulder to shoulder with other nations. But I believe that will happen, and I’m doing all I can to make sure that the nation that rises from the ashes of Saddam’s secrets and treachery will be worthy of the price we have paid. For that I put my trust in the God who has blessed us and who has shown us a way out of darkness. With his help, and with a renewed commitment by the Iraqi people to find a better way, I believe we will see changes that will dazzle the eyes of the world.
May it be so.
Notes
1 In Iraq General Sada is best known as General Georges. The most common form of address in Middle Eastern countries is with a person’s first name. It is for the benefit of our Western audience that the editors have chosen to use the name Gen. Sada. All other names presented within the book are in their typical Middle Eastern form.
2 Philip Sherwell, “Saddam’s son ‘tried to have pilots executed,’” The Telegraph, Feb. 5, 2004. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/02/wsadd02.xml&site=5]. (Accessed November 11, 2005).
3 Between 1991 and 2003, there were dozens of published reports in Europe and America confirming the tyranny of Saddam and the Baathist regime, and offering a wealth of detail about the development of WMDs. For a sampling of the large number of reports in major U.S. newspapers regarding Saddam’s overt and covert weapons programs, see especially Robert Kagan, “It Wasn’t Just Miller’s Story,” The Washington Post, Oct. 25, 2005. A21.
4Thank God, this is what did, in fact, happen. The bombers came, but they didn’t destroy a single bridge, and the missiles and stealth attacks which struck Iraq in the second Gulf War pinpointed primarily military and government targets, and they did it with stunning accuracy in most cases. For the most part, civilians and their homes were spared. Water and electricity were only minimally damaged and were quickly back in working order.
Acknowledgments
I would like to publicly thank my good friend, Terry Law, for his encouragement and prayers during this book writing process. Without him, I am unsure if I would have completed the book or found people interested in spreading the knowledge of what really happened to Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
In December 2002, just prior to the war, I was in London when I received a phone call from Amman, Jordan to tell me about two people who desired to go to Baghdad—one of those men was Terry Law. I was told they were very good, Christian people, humanitarians, and that they needed help with their visas. I fortunately knew the Iraqi Minister of Religion, so I phoned him and we soon had visas for the men.
Terry Law and his associate, Joel Vesanen, visited Iraq just b
efore America declared war on Saddam Hussein’s regime. They were some of the first Americans to see with their own eyes the effects of Saddam’s dictatorship. They saw the great need in Iraq specifically among the hospitalized children who were dying for lack of adequate medicine. I, along with my Iraqi brothers and sisters, have a deep sense of gratitude for the large quantities of medicine Terry and his organization have given to Iraqi hospitals over the past three years. I have personally seen the love of Jesus Christ demonstrated through them.
On May 1, 2003, President Bush announced the war was essentially over. One week later, Terry, Joel and Terry’s two sons, Scot and Jason, and I traveled together to Baghdad against the advice of the American Embassy due to the danger. We traveled 100 miles per hour in a convoy of fifteen SUVs from the border of Jordan into Baghdad.
On that trip, something profound happened to me. We were staying at the Palestine Hotel, bordering Fardous Square where Saddam’s statue had been pulled down just days before. Terry spoke a prophetic word from God that has since come to pass in my life. He told me that the Lord had a position of influence for me in the coming government of Iraq and that He was going to use me to help the cause of Christianity in my country. Given the discouragement and uncertainty I felt, this message brought me great comfort and encouragement.
In December 2003 Terry and I were once again together in Baghdad when Saddam Hussein was captured. The entire city erupted in gunfire. Terry and his American friends wondered if a revolution was taking place. Paul Bremer, the head of the interim provisional government, announced on international television: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got him!” There were pictures of Saddam in a spider hole captured just north of us in the town of Tikrit. It was quite a day for us to be in Baghdad together.
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