Rising Up Against Saddam
This post is contributed by Dr. Diane Hassan, author of “Angels Among Us Even in Iraq”, who is currently participating in “On Loan at You Served” as a guest blogger.
As the days went by, we started having a routine. We actually became use to the planes coming every night at 9 pm on the dot. One night the planes did not come and I actually felt disappointed.
Early one morning around 2 am, I was listening to the voice of America, the planes were over head dropping missiles all around, I heard President George H. Bush say three words that I will never forget,”Okay cease fire.” Planes were still over head dropping missiles, I thought okay fellas, our President said cease fire you can quit now. They continued to hit our area until dawn and then we had silence.
Around 8 am we heard gun shots all around us, we heard continuous sounds of gun fire. We did not know where it was coming from. My nephew who was only 8 years old at the time, Ali, was listening to the radio and told us the people in Basrah are fighting the government.
The soldiers that were returning from Kuwait on the highway of death, when they made it back to Basrah one of the Iraqi tanks fired on a Statue of Saddam. Nothing happened, people were watching. It was their clue that it is time to rise up against Saddam, America is near by, they will help.
Every town, and village in Iraq rose up against Saddam. Men, women and children began the fight for freedom. We heard shooting day and night for days.
We stayed in our home, away from the windows and prayed for all the brave Iraqies that were fighting for freedom. They were willing to die in order to bring Saddam down. I was listening to the voice of America, while gun fire was all around us. I felt safe as long as I heard English being spoken. I heard President George H. Bush say, “We do not interfere in internal affairs.” Tears started coming down my checks, I felt hopeless, I knew how every one of my patients felt when I had to tell them they had a terminal illness. Iraq had a terminal illness, Saddam.
Iraq was destroyed, the Iraqis were fighting a hopeless battle, help was not coming. I knew what would happen next. Saddam was allowed to fly his helicopters and he and his Revolutionary guards killed in the South of Iraq 300,000 Shites who were fighting for freedom. The revolution was squashed, Saddam ordered everyone to return to work and business as usual in a destroyed Iraq. That was the Iraq of yesterday. The people were persecuted ten times more because they rose up against Saddam.
We left Iraq in 1993. The people left behind suffered so much. They lost their hope for Freedom. They were willing to pay the price, but they needed help. They were almost to Baghdad, the government had fallen and Saddam was allowed to fly those horrible black helicopters…
