The Hindu Business Line : `Allah is bigger than America'

Shaan doesn't think Americans are in Iraq for the oil. "They want to set up their base here what with Syria, Turkey and Iran on the borders, and the Americans are afraid of all of them."

Basra , Oct. 26

SALEEM and his friends have come from Sydney to their hometown of Basra for four weeks "to see if there is any chance of our returning home". But even before they set sail for Umm Qasr from Dubaia a month ago, they knew that "things are a mess in Iraq. But for us the greatest joy was that Saddam Hussein — the criminal, the thief, the murderer, in short the evil one — was gone. That was something we could celebrate."

Each of the Iraqi men has a heart-rending story to tell of Saddam's atrocities. For instance, Saleem's father was jailed by Saddam in 1979 "for no other crime than his unwillingness to join the Baath party". "Though I had little hope, I came here to look for my father. But despite a desperate search I haven't been able to find him," says the the six-footer fighting back his tears.

"When I graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1992, nobody would give me a job because my father was in jail. So I had to flee Iraq and I ended up in Australia." Today, he works with an engineering firm in Sydney and has a family of his own. "I have a wife and children. It is a good country to live in. But for all the comfort we have, Australia is not my home. I am watching my children growing up with western values. After all, their culture is very different and I am concerned. After 11 years, I am still a homeless person," says the articulate Iraqi.

Saleem and his two friends, Shaan and Jawd (names shortened to make it easier for the Aussies), who did a round of Iraq, visiting Baghdad and the Shiite pilgrim centres of Karbala, Najaf and Samara, found things "much better in Basra. The British who have been for long years in Kuwait know how to behave with Iraqis. The Americans, on the other hand, are extremely rude," said Jawd. He cites the example of American soldiers barging into his friend's house in Baghdad to search for somebody. "Educated people like us realise that the Americans will have to remain here for perhaps a year or two. Had they knocked politely and given an opportunity for the women to put on their hijab, they might have been welcomed. But no, they had to break open the door with their guns. If they do all this, how can they expect the Iraqi people not to kill them," asks Jawd.

Shaan, also an engineer who failed to get a job in Iraq, claims that during the Saddam regime, thousands of qualified professionals had to flee Iraq because there were no employment opportunities for them. "Even if some enterprising person set up his own business, one day he would find a Baath party member walk up to his business establishment, take it over and throw him out. That's how bad it was then."

After working as an engineer in Sydney for a few years, he managed to set up his own rack-building business there.

He does not think the Americans are in Iraq for the oil. "After all, Saddam sold oil to the Americans for years. In fact, he ultimately sold out both the oil and the people of Iraq to the Americans. The real reason is that they want to capture Iraq and set up their base here. It is such a strategically important place for them with Syria, Turkey and Iran on the borders, and the Americans are afraid of all of them."

He subscribes to the view that the Americans are required in Iraq for some more time... maybe a year or two. "The problem is that before he fell, Saddam let out all the criminals from the jails and they are terrorising people on the streets of Baghdad. If the Americans were to leave now, these criminal elements and the Saddam loyalists will try to regain control and if that happens, Iraq will be destroyed."

Adds Saleem, "But don't think the Iraqi people will take crap from the Americans for long. We are digesting the American soldiers' arrogance because we know their presence is in our interest. But if they don't leave in a year or two, we will throw them out with the help of Allah. After all, Allah is greater than the Americans."

Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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`Allah is bigger than America'