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Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2006

Staff Brig Gen Qaa’id Kerish Mashthoob Al-Khuzaa’i, Iraqi Air Force*

The coup d’état that put the Baath Party in power in Iraq on 17 July 1968 began a new page in the history of the country. The characteristics of this bloody page became clear when some of the party members swooped down on others just 13 days later. The liquidations included all Iraqis whose opinions differed from those of the Baathists. The harm did not stop with the people who opposed those in power but included their family members to the sixth degree of relationship. Nadhim Gzar directed the massacres carried out by his General Security forces, followed by the execution of so-called spies and the extermination of everyone who opposed the regime. In short, Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, after having wielded the real power and influence during the tenure of his predecessor, Gen Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr.

After Saddam officially became president, he quickly ordered the execution of comrades who had merely whispered their opposition to the methods by which he assumed control. A few months later, he dragged the country into war with Iran, and when Iraq was still licking its wounds following that conflict, he plunged it into war with Kuwait—not to mention the killing of Shiites and Kurds during the 1991 popular uprising after the first Gulf War, and of anyone who even hinted at anything that the regime interpreted as an opposing view. Generations of thugs grew up committing these massacres, violating human rights, and suppressing freedom. In truth, the state conducted terrorism primarily against its own people and secondarily against neighboring nations as well as against humanity.

I do not wish to level accusations at the many nations that reinforced Saddam’s regime to carry out this terrorism, but as a matter of fact, France and Russia provided the most support by supplying modern weapons and equipment. They parted with their humanity cheaply when they sold this materiel to Iraq. I also do not wish to write the bloody history of Saddam Hussein. To do so would require lengthy tomes. But I do wish to link the terrorism practiced by Saddam and his Baathist clique with what these same people have done to the Iraqi people since coalition forces led by the United States overthrew Saddam’s regime.

At that time the cowardly Baathists, believing that the Iraqi people would literally tear them apart, fled to their dens—some of them to other Arab countries where they embraced the terrorist movements which they found there. Because the Iraqi people have a long tradition of offering forgiveness, they did not pursue the Baathists, leaving them instead to the forces of law and authority. Those forces, however, including the Ruling Council and other bodies, proved weak and did not decisively and firmly hold these criminals accountable for their transgressions. Consequently, these cowards avoided punishment. Those who escaped the wrath of the eagle became insolent and took revenge against the Iraqi people by carrying out car bombings and assassinating honorable members of our great nation, justifying this carnage in the name of resistance.

The ravens of evil screeched in front of them, and the so-called men of religion (the imams of blasphemy), whether in Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, or other places, incited Iraqis and others to terrorism—ugly crimes of the worst sort, including the slaughter of children, women, and men, and the random detonation of explosives in the country’s streets and marketplaces. Sometimes they justified their actions by claiming to target Shiites or those who work for the government—in addition to other worthless justifications. Having lost their senses, they launched terror attacks that defy description—undefinable and more heinous than any crime or act of discrimination. I wonder why this nation is destined to become victims of killing and intimidation conducted by the Baathists, both previously and now.

Sadly, other Arab and Islamic nations have hesitated to condemn these vicious acts of terrorism. Even worse, Arab countries have scandalously aided and supported terrorism in Iraq. The imams provoke their people, as if religion has now become centered around Saddam and the Baath Party—even though Saddam severely punished and humiliated all Arabs. Furthermore, superpowers such as France and Russia have remained silent in the face of these crimes, uttering not a single word of simple condemnation—as if they yearn for the return of Saddam and the reinstatement of their cozy relationship that helped him commit crimes against humanity.

Some say that America invaded Iraq. I call it liberation of my country from the regime of a tyrant and his accomplices. In fact, Saddam brought America to Iraq by mocking all human values and social relationships and by showing disregard for his people as well as all the other nations of the world. He imagined that nobody would dare call his hand. But he forgot the power of God, who harnessed the strength of the United States to liberate Iraq after Americans died in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. After Saddam’s regime fell, we saw the depth of the connection between him and al-Qaeda revealed with the dispatch of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Iraq and al-Qaeda’s terrorist operations there after the liberation. The strongest justification for liberating Iraq was not that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction—even though he would have obtained and used them to destroy the human race, had the United States not applied constant pressure to his regime. Rather, the best justification for liberating Iraq was the terrorist orientation of Saddam’s regime on all levels, both domestic and foreign, and its determination to obtain weapons of mass destruction by any means possible.

Simply put, Iraq still lives amidst two forms of terrorism—that of Saddam’s regime before liberation and that of the present, which followed as a direct consequence of that regime’s destruction of Iraq and the killing of its people. Indeed, many Iraqis still have not found their family members—not even in the mass graves. Additionally, the nation suffers from the destruction of its infrastructure, and backwardness plagues the Iraqi people.

O people of Iraq, may your multitudes all be reunited with God. Whoever has had the patient heart to suffer such tyranny and terrorism has borne something beyond the endurance of even mountains or camels. Keep moving forward on the road of patience, freedom, and democracy built by your altruistic sons. May God watch over you and all of those who are your friends and honorable brothers. May you not be disunited by appeals to falsehood and slander. May you not be swept away by the winds of racism and sectarianism raised by all the malicious, vile people who come from the dunghills of history. Since eternity you have been a people with laws and civilization—a source of radiant light for the world. From your lands the first legal code came forth. O my country—I salute you, as I live in your midst and in your embrace. May God spare you from the deceitful deeds of all those who are grudgeful and backward.

*Members of General Al-Khuzaa’i’s family participated in the 1991 uprising against Saddam and paid a heavy price. His cousin, Captain Imad of the Engineering Corps, was killed by the Special Republican Guard. General Al-Khuzaa’i’s younger brother Ra’id was executed at age 16. His cousin Firas was executed at age 20, and his body was never recovered. General Al-Khuzaa’i’s uncle Muhsin was also killed. The general himself was discharged from military service for his political views and put under surveillance. He was persecuted by Saddam’s regime and was summoned several times to its security and intelligence offices for interrogation. While teaching at the Al-Bakr Military University, he formed a group of dissidents consisting of cadets and military faculty members.

Contributor

Staff Brig Gen Qaa’id Kerish Mashthoob Al-Khuzaa’i, Iraqi air force, is director of air operations in the Iraqi Air Force Command. A 1978 graduate of the Iraqi Air Force Academy in Baghdad, he earned his flight instructor’s diploma in 1985. General Al-Khuzaa’i continued his academic and professional pursuits to earn a Staff Academy diploma in 1989 and a BA degree in law in 2003. He enrolled in a training course at the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute in Washington, DC. His professional career includes teaching at the Al-Bakr Military University, duties as an air force wing commander, and eight years of service in various leadership positions. In 1999 he was discharged from military service for political reasons. He returned to service after the liberation of Iraq in 2003 as an assistant commander of the Al-Diwanya Province Public Safety Directorate, working with the US Marine Corps to maintain civil peace and order; he then assumed his current air force post.

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University

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