Lost in the news shuffle of spy outings and candidate gropings over the last few days was the news that the head of the Iraqi delegation to the United Nations addressed that body on October 2. The speech by Ahmad Chalabi may have received more play elsewhere, but it caused barely a ripple in the U.S. media. Small wonder, because it was a not so subtle shot at those who didn't suppport the liberation of the Iraqi citizen: (link via On the Third Hand)
Those within his country have inflicted on him the worst kinds of torture: they have attacked his honour, betrayed his family, humiliated him, enchained him and thrown him into miserable wars. His brothers and friends in the region not only maintained silence, ignorance and blindness toward his catastrophe, they also criticised him and shamed him the day he dared raise his voice. And throughout the world, those that stood to benefit scrambled to trade and work with his torturer.Very few spoke the truth and embraced it. Very few turned to the catastrophe of this fellow human being and declared that he was a victim. To our calls we heard nothing. So the Iraqi remained lost and persecuted twice over, first from the injustice of the sword with which the dictatorial regime attacked him at home, and then from the injustice of the criticism, a more painful affliction, from those outside.
Chalabi then credited the man most responsible for Iraq's rebirth, and challenged the critics to come and see for themselves:
The first truth that I begin with is that Iraq's long dark night has been ended. The bitter experience of humiliation, pain and suffering that Iraqis have endured for more than three decades has ended. It ended with Saddam Hussein fleeing, along with his cronies and with the collapse of the symbols that they had erected in Baghdad and throughout Iraq.As for the second truth, it is that the liberation of Iraq, and what happened is indeed liberation, could not have been achieved without the determination of President George W. Bush and the commitment of the Coalition. At the forefront are the United States of America and Great Britain. If today we hear the voices of those in doubt of the intentions of the American and British governments in undertaking this liberation, we invite them to go and visit the mass graves, to visit the dried up marshes, to visit the gassed city of Halabja, to examine the list of the missing whose very right to live was taken away from them by the regime.
No wonder this thing got absolutely no play in the U.S. media. The only people more embarrassed by this tribute had to be the U.N. delegates sitting there listening to it in person.
It only gets better. Chalabi went on at length about the Constitution, checks and balances, democratic spirit, the preeminence of the individual, government transparency and accountability, federalism, the rule of law. He might as well have just said, "we want to build a nation on the model of America".
He ends with a conciliatory tone:
Our right today from the world is to demand help and assistance, thanking all those that stood by Iraqis at their worst hour and forgiving those that did not stand with us. It is important for all the nations of the world to acknowledge that what happened in Iraq yesterday in terms of horrors, and what is happening today in terms of reconstruction, presents a dramatic historic event. The international community must stand with Iraq in this.
How long do you suppose it will be before someone accuses Rove or Cheney of writing the speech for their "puppet" Chalabi? It's not a matter of if, only when.
Posted by dan at October 5, 2003 12:16 AM