THE AFTERMATH OF SADDAM HUSSEIN AND MUAMMAR GADDAFI

  I never expected that a day would come when a question like this will ever cross my mind for whatever reason at all, but the reality of the moment demands of all of us to reminisce on the not too distant past of two oil producing countries, Iraq and Libya. Each time that I see Iraq and Libya in the news these days, with all the lawlessness, brutality, barbarity and impunity that has become a tradition there, I cannot but ask myself if these two countries, now hell, were not better off with its two notorious devils at the helm of affairs than they are today.

  I know that so many people will be quick to say that whatever the price paid for freedom is a deserved price and that what is going on in these two countries is just the logical process after a long time of dictatorial regime and the consequent power vacuum created, but how many more people need to die for the price to be deemed satisfactory and sufficient? A week of heavy bombardment can take a nation back 20 years or more on the echelon of development. A quick picture of Bagdad or Benghazi today will show you how too expensive the death of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi is appearing to the Iraqis and the Libyans respectively. This is when the saying, “the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know” becomes a very wise saying.   

  When someone begins to compare and even begin to long for a fallen dictatorial leader in their present calamitous situation, then all is not well. A lot of Iraqis and Libyans would wish that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still alive and leading them today compared to the prevalent war and anarchy currently present in their countries. True there were blatant abuse of human rights under the two dictators but then there was a government in both countries, today there continues to be more cases of human rights abuse and a total breakdown of law and order.

  A lot of us honestly thought that the deaths of these two irritating personalities in our modern history will bring about instant progress, peace and stability to their countries, their people and the world in general. We were tired of seeing how they wielded unlimited and draconian powers on their people; we were tired of seeing how they deprived their people freedom and even the most basic of human rights. We watched with bewilderment how Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds to death without any remorse, Col Muammar Gaddafi on his part prevented the whole Libyans from haven a dignifying life except himself, his family and those who have found favor in his sight; he practically made himself a god over his people. Both leaders did not only subject their people to untold hardships, they sowed terror all through their regions and provoked political and economic instability in many neighboring countries.

  But what none of us suspected was that years later after these notorious leaders have been ignominiously executed, the problems in their countries and their regions would escalate to an uncontrollable and unimaginable height, much more than when they were alive, and unlike then when we knew who to hold responsible for whatever mess in their countries, today the culprits are somewhat anonymous, different terrorists networks have turned these two countries into the gates of hell, where innocent persons are killed and maimed with outright impunity in the name of the Islamic religion. The latest threat in the region is the I.S.I.S, a group that first presented itself as a rebel group fighting against the excesses and the nefarious activities of Syrian despot Bashar al-Asaad and even succeeded in rousing the sympathy of the west against the Syrian despot, who warned then that I.S.I.S was a terrorist organization that needed to be wiped out by every means. We saw how so many Europeans with Arab origins moved into the Persian Gulf to join the alleged victims of the Syrian war who later turned out to be the terrorists gathering momentum and seeking through a false-victim-playing-game to be fully equipped by the U.S and some European countries that feared that the Syrian government was spearheading a genocide.

  And once well armed, the I.S.I.S has turned into what it truly is, a terrorists group, a lot more cruel and much more devastating in its operations than even Al-Qaeda, trying to wipe out the entire Christian population in Iraq and its environs. People are even beginning to say that Saddam killed a thousand but that those who have taken over from him are killing tens of thousands; same thing applies in Libya with most of its cities turned into ghost cities. Now the question yawning for answer is this, should the west intervene and why is the Arab league never seen to be active in situations like this, since they are the principal affected people? Why are they never concertedly concerned about the problems in the region and why do they always wait for the West to intervene in their regional problems, the truth is this, Arab nations are bias and secretly supportive of most of the agitations of the extremists groups in the region but continue to play a double standard because of its business interest with the West.

  The Americans and their allied forces cannot now abandon the Iraqis and Libyans to their fate, because whether they like it or not, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere and since they do not have a way of retrieving the arms and ammunitions they are very quick to supply to any group of their choice, most of them terrorist groups camouflaging as freedom fighters to gain universal support, they must intervene to clear up the mess they had directly or indirectly contributed in creating. Arab countries, particularly Muslims should make themselves participants too in the war to cleanse and exonerate their religion from atrocities committed to mankind, they must take a stand, because those who keep quiet or look away when an evil deed is being perpetrated are presumed to be giving their support to injustice.