Death to those who dare to speak out

Even though Saddam Hussein has been out of power for more than a year, Iraq remains a country still living in fear. Scientists and other intelligensia are being threatened and murdered. Many are fleeing the country.

"Even under Saddam Hussein, Saad Jawad spoke his mind. The mild-mannered, political science professor was one of only four people who dared to sign a petition asking Iraq's dictator for a more democratic form of government.

Today, Dr. Jawad still speaks out. But like other university professors across Iraq, he is increasingly afraid that saying what he thinks - or saying anything political at all - could get him killed. "To tell the truth, at the time of Saddam Hussein, we used to speak to our students freely," says Jawad. "Ministers, for example, were criticized all the time. But now, a lot of people are not willing to say these kinds of things because of fear."

Over the past year, Baghdad's intelligentsia has seen a wave of killings: scientists, professors, and academics, executed in carefully planned assassinations.

It's hard to estimate the toll, but US occupation authorities put the number of "intellectuals and professionals" assassinated at up to five a month, not counting another five to 10 monthly attempts."

the story continues

I honestly don't believe that Bush will not make Iraq a democracy. In fact I believe that we'll take it over when he feels the time is right. We went over there to take over the country along with the oil fields. Bush doesn't care about the people nor soldiers who are dying.

[Edited on 3-5-2004 by mrmulder]

I honestly don't believe that Bush will not make Iraq a democracy. In fact I believe that we'll take it over when he feels the time is right.

Believe it or not, we won't take it over. What seperates America from most other countries in the world is that we have never held onto our "conquests." The British had India. (And the US). Every time we have "wtfpwned" a country (Let's see: Germany, Japan, et al) we have built it up.

Iraq, I'm sure, will not be different. It just may take a while. Funny how 5% of the world's land accounts for 90% of the world's problems, too. This is an inherently unstable area of the world, and our intervention - however "imperialistic" it may be - is not instigating some yellow-journalism jingoism: We're there in an attempt to have the domino effect of Democracy.

For how much the United States contributes to world society, we certainly catch more than our share of flack. Germany refuses to "back" us, but were we to pull our military from their country, their economy would suffer quite a downslide.

We went over there to take over the country along with the oil fields. Bush doesn't care about the people nor soldiers who are dying.

Then, pray tell, why haven't gas prices been falling? If we're there simply for oil, I'd think that we'd be receiving it, eh? A flimsy argument for those who fail to recognise that there was sound basis - even void of these WMDs everyone is squawking about - to invade Iraq.

The rest of the world is content with being Neville Chamberlain: Maybe if we just looked the other way, Hussein would "right" himself. Fact is, this was a man who was killing his own people - torturing, raping, etc. This is not permissable in any country, and Iraq was simply on the top of the list. This is a country which was conscientously violating weapons proliferation sanctions since 1992 - sanctions placed by the UN. When Iraq refused to yield, the UN failed to do anything more than send a smattering of missiles to low-value targets in 1998.

It takes time to build countries up, and I think the June 30 deadline is ineffectual: This is a country which has known nothing more than fear and despotism; like Pavlov's Dogs, these are people who respond to ANY higher authority with cowering and hatred.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe

Even though Saddam Hussein has been out of power for more than a year, Iraq remains a country still living in fear. I beat when Saddam was there, the people were not in this much fear


It's hard to estimate the toll, but US occupation authorities put the number of "intellectuals and professionals" assassinated at up to five a month, not counting another five to 10 monthly attempts.

Who can be killing these people? hmm....... Too me its, which division?

Thanks for the great story, and info.

[Edited on 3-5-2004 by SpittinCobra]

There is no way the US is going to take over Iraq. It just won't happen. What is ahead for us is a very tough road. The initial invasion was easy because Saddam loyalists went to ground. The assassinations are the work of the loyalists waging a long-term, difficult to fight war against the US and the honest Iraqis seeking freedom. Fear is the weapon used by Saddam and it is the same weapon being used to slow the transition in Iraq today.