Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising in the Arab World by Kanan Makiya W. W. Norton & Co., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York 10110, 1993, 367 pages, $19.95.
In Cruelty and Silence, Kanan Makiya has produced a strange mixture of a book. Both gripping and boring, the book manages to blend fascinating personal accounts with pages of tedious tangents. In the first half--"Cruelty"--he continues the polemic against the Iraqi regime that he began under the pen name Samir al-Khalil in Republic of Fear. In the second half--"Silence"--Makiya attempts to find the cause of the cruelty he finds in the modern Arab world and lays a significant portion of the blame at the feet of Arab intellectuals. The second half of the book will only be useful for those interested in the social psychology of the Arab world. However, the first half provides valuable insight into the workings of the Baathist regime of Iraq as well as the popular uprisings in Iraq of early 1991 that were hidden from Western eyes.
As a whole, and from a Western point of view, the book is not very well written. It too easily slips away from a subject into musings and self- examinations; and it assumes knowledge of the Middle East and Iraq that many readers do not have. However, for those interested in why Saddam Hussein's Iraq and dictatorships like it have to be resisted, there are gems of personal testimony within these pages that should not be missed.
Makiya divides "Silence" into sections devoted to the personal accounts of cruelty that individuals have suffered at the hands of the Iraqi government. Although these accounts are perhaps not surprising, they still manage to convey horrifying details of the actions and state policies of the Saddam-centered Baath regime. These are the interesting and valuable sections for Air Force readers. Following are some examples.
"Khalil" is a Kuwaiti victim of the Iraqi invasion of August 1990 who describes some of the atrocities committed by the Iraqi army while in Kuwait. His real name is Khaled Nasser al-Sabah. He is, as his name suggests, a member of Kuwait's ruling family who chose his wartime pseudonym in honor of the author of Republic of Fear. The reader who hopes for a narrative of the Kuwaiti resistance during the occupation will be disappointed here. Khalil spends more time on the "Highway of Death" than he does on the occupation. Makiya compounds this by focusing on inter-Arab perceptions and prejudices more than on the events of late 1990 in Kuwait, which an American would be interested in.
"Abu Haydar" is a pseudonym for any number of Iraqi soldiers who took part in the Shia uprising in Najaf in early 1991. This chapter is perhaps the most useful since, in describing the uprising from several firsthand viewpoints, it provides accounts and information that are not well known in the West. It will be of particular interest for Iraqi analysts as it discusses the role of Ayatollah Khoei, the former Shiite cleric in Iraq during the uprisings.
The chapter "Omar" is perhaps the most interesting reading. Omar is an Iraqi victim of the Ba'athist regime, just one of many implicated in an imaginary plot against the regime. His story gives insights into the Iraqi security structure and techniques through the eyes of the common Iraqi. He is the best narrator of all Makiya's sources, and the reading is gripping as well as informative.
"Mustafa" is a Kurd, a victim of the use of chemicals by Saddam Hussein's regime. Mustafa lost most of his extended family in one chemical bombing raid on their village--despite precautions against the use of chemicals. With this chapter, Makiya begins his focus on the Kurdish side of the Iraqi equation that continues with "Taimour," a Kurdish boy. The Iraqi army/security forces took Taimour when he was less than 10 years old to be executed along with the rest of his village. He escaped from a mass grave and is now a symbol of Kurdish resistance against Al-Anfal--a policy of the Baathist regime aimed at ridding Iraq of the Kurdish "problem." The parallels between the extermination policies of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Hitler's Germany, and Pol Pot's Cambodia are too clear to need emphasis here.
In the second half of the book, "Silence," Makiya quickly loses the reader in a morass of self-examination, examination of the state of the Arab psyche, and examination of the state of Arab intellectual life. I think he wants to make the point that the academic world, especially Arab intellectuals, has the obligation to speak out against the continuing atrocities in the Middle East. He fails to make his point clearly and compounds his problems by holding those intellectuals responsible for the state of Arab society today--surely a responsibility that must be shared more widely. Most disappointingly, Makiya uses this book to indulge in what seems to be a personal vendetta against Edward Said, the Palestinian-American author and scholar. Makiya accuses Said of aiding Saddam Hussein by not speaking out against the invasion of Kuwait, a puzzling accusation since Said was at the forefront of those condemning the invasions.
Fortunately, the "Silence" section is the second half, and the reader has gleaned the useful information before being bogged down in Makiya's poorly presented agenda. Despite the problems with the second half, the first half on cruelty speaks volumes about the plight of Arabs in modern police states. For those who will not have the misfortune to experience life in Iraq or Syria or any number of Middle Eastern states, Cruelty and Silence opens a window onto those benighted societies.&127;
Capt Donald G. Rose, USAF
Hurlburt Field, Florida
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