Perceptions

By Pueros

(Baghdad, early April 2003)

“The Arabian peninsula has never, since Allah made it flat, created its deserts, and encircled it with seas, been stormed with any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food.”

- Osama bin Laden (‘Jihad Against Jews & Crusaders’, 1998)

His name is Ali. The handsome, highly intelligent 22 year-old Shia Muslim, of rich, influential background, had been well educated, gaining a degree in English at the University of Baghdad. After graduation, he would have liked to travel abroad, especially to Europe and North America. However, before he was to be permitted such freedom, he first he had to prove his loyalty to the state, the Baath party and particularly his President, Saddam Hussein, by performing military service.

Ali became a junior officer in the Republican Guard. He could have used his father’s money and influence to buy himself out of such a commitment, but he thought that such manipulation of the call-up system would be unpatriotic. He also did not want to repeat the hypocrisy of George W. Bush. He understood that the current American President had used paternal connections to avoid service in Vietnam, instead joining the Texas militia, hardly a dangerous frontline assignment. Nevertheless, ‘Dubya’ was now encouraging warlike nationalist sentiments in the USA, with the aim of sending the sons of other American parents to fight and possibly die in Iraq.

Ali’s father was a prominent technocrat and, to attain and retain this status, and thereby keep his family safe and prosperous, he, like all others in similar positions, had had to compromise his basic principles. He was publicly a loyal Baathist and supporter of Saddam, whereas privately he felt nothing but contempt for the regime and the President, although he was very careful with whom he shared these views. Disclosure of his true attitude would lead to his elimination, and probably that of many of his closest relations.

The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Ali’s family comprised Shia Muslims, who, despite the fact that they formed a majority of the population, were a minority in the Sunni-dominated ruling party and always considered potential traitors. They therefore constantly had to act with seeming scrupulous loyalty or face potentially fatal trouble, always mindful of what had happened to hundreds of thousands of people who shared their Islamic beliefs after the last war involving a coalition led by the USA.

Ali and his family had not forgotten that, during the first Gulf War, the original President George Bush had urged Iraqis to rise against Saddam. Many tens of thousands of Shias had done so, ultimately at the expense of not only their own lives but also those of their kin. The Americans had failed to support them because they were seemingly unwilling to endanger their own forces in the fight, once they had liberated Kuwait.

Many Iraqis, Shias in particular, had not forgotten or forgiven what they considered American perfidy and betrayal.

Ali was fully aware of his family’s moral compromise. The young man also agreed with his father’s opinion of the obnoxious Iraqi regime. However, both realised that there was little that could be done about the situation other than to survive and await a better future.

One of the privileges of trusted senior Baath party membership had been the ability of Ali’s father to acquire and use a satellite television system, ostensibly to receive wider entertainment than provided on the state-run channel. However, the equipment also facilitated the procurement of foreign news and other factual programmes and so the young man’s family were able to keep abreast of international developments, right up to the latest invasion of their country by coalition forces, led again by the Americans. As a consequence, the 22 year-old had kept himself well-informed about world issues, a characteristic he somehow intended to maintain during hostilities.

Ali and his family were elated at the thought that Saddam and his henchmen might soon be deposed. However, as well as worrying about their own safety in the forthcoming war, they were also concerned about the motives of the invaders and what the aftermath of the conflict would bring. All were proud nationalists and Muslims and did not like the idea of a foreign Christian occupation force dictating the future of Iraq, whilst possibly simultaneously furtively plundering the country’s oil wealth.

Ali and his father suspected American ambitions in particular. In their mind, the USA had a dubious history when it came to protecting what it perceives as its own national interests.

Recalling the awful experiences of the last war, Ali and his father believed that the USA often sought to secure such interests at the expense of others, many of whom were innocents caught in the middle of disputes. They therefore listened with particular immense cynicism to current American suggestions that the Iraqis should co-operate again in toppling Saddam.

Ali and his father also appreciated that the nominal excuse for the present unprecedented attack was to deprive a rogue regime of weapons of mass destruction. However, they believed that this was merely a smokescreen for something more sinister because, if Iraq did still possess such an arsenal, which they doubted, the country had no mechanism to deliver the material, particularly to such a faraway destination as the USA. They additionally realised that talk of terrorists making use of any deadly stocks to assail the west was nonsense because Saddam was not stupid enough, especially in the current post-9/11 climate, to nurture any links with such groups.

Ali and his father therefore concluded that there was really only one reason why America had decided to attack Iraq, an action that was unprecedented because the US homeland was itself not being truly threatened by this particular Middle Eastern country. From their perspective, the conflict really suited only one particular American national interest, and that was oil.

The desire of the Bush family, known for its strong links to the US oil industry, for revenge was also an undoubted additional factor. After failing to depose Saddam cheaply in 1991, the familial anger of the Texans had been exacerbated by an attempt by agents of the Iraqi dictator to assassinate Bush senior during his visit to Kuwait in 1993.

The perception of Ali and his father about the reality of American ambitions was compounded by the fact that members of the current US administration had begun threatening Iraq immediately after 9/11, even though the Middle Eastern country blatantly had no connection to that atrocity. They therefore thought then that such threats by the new right-wing government in Washington, dominated by neo-conservatives such as Chaney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle, only proved that there was a hidden agenda.

Nevertheless, after the invasion had finally begun, Ali, genuinely no coward, decided that he did not want to fight to save Saddam’s regime, instead wanting to survive to combat later, albeit by force of argument not arms, what he considered flagrant American economic and political imperialism. The young man proposed to try to become some form of nationalist politician to help the recovery of Iraq and deprive the USA of, what he perceived as, its planned ill-gotten booty.

Like many other Republican Guard survivors of the coalition aerial bombardment, Ali took the opportunity of the resulting chaos to exchange his uniform for civilian clothing in order to return to his family. The latter were sheltering in Baghdad, whilst praying that a stray bomb or missile would not hit their home. The young man’s journey was not too long because the military emplacements from which he fled were just outside the Iraqi capital. However, unfortunately, the distance was to prove far enough for him to be intercepted by Baathist militia, on the lookout for deserters, especially of the Shiite type.

Ali’s military status was evident by his identity card and, after being beaten for being a cowardly deserter and traitor to Saddam, he was taken to the local militia headquarters, in a heavily populated district of Baghdad, full of crowded tenements. The terrified young man, hands now handcuffed behind him, was just in time to see another Shia Republican Guard officer, of about the same age, literally being torn apart in the car park outside the building.

The other handsome young man had been stripped naked and his limbs tied firmly with rope to two militia people carriers. Meanwhile, loudspeakers had compelled local residents to emerge from their homes to watch the spectacle. Not only was the car park crowded but also so were many balconies on surrounding tenements. Thousands of horrified men, women and children were therefore forced to watch as the two vehicles were slowly driven apart.

As well as the copious bloody mayhem created at the point where the young deserter’s limbs were torn from his body, much vomit was produced elsewhere, as the stomachs of sickened spectators showed their disgust at the sight. Ali, now handcuffed and held tightly by two militiamen, had deliberately been given a prime view and his belly reacted in a similar manner, staining his civilian clothing. Meanwhile, the dismembered torso was still writhing on the floor, until its anguish was finally ended by a bullet to the head.

Ali appreciated that the appalling scene he had just witnessed had been perpetrated, using the phrase Voltaire used after hearing that an admiral had been shot for incompetence, ‘pour encourager les autres’, or ‘to encourage the others’. The militiamen were demonstrating to the people the potential consequences of deserting Saddam’s cause.

Ali just knew that he, a deserting Shiite officer, had also been singled out to be the focus soon of a similar propaganda presentation.

(Somewhere in Iraq, same time)

“I will not allow this little dictator to control 25 percent of the civilised world’s oil!”

- President George Bush senior (according to Queen Noor of Jordan, who was quoting her late husband, King Hussein)

CNN reporter, Walter Rodgers, ‘embedded’ in an American Abrams tank, appeared to have regained his lost youth as he provided the world, via his news network, with another jingoistic report about the Iraqi war. He was currently accompanying what he described as “the boys” of the “Seventh Cav” and prattling exuberantly about the deadly potency of his vehicle’s 120mm gun.

Nearby, another of these guns targeted a small dwelling where it was suspected enemy soldiers might be waiting in ambush. The weapon was fired without checking the veracity of this suspicion, a not uncommon phenomenon during the conflict, according to neutral sources, despite American reassurances that every care would be taken to protect the non-combatant civilian population. The reality was that US forces often tended to shoot first and ask questions later.

(Doha, Qatar, next day)

“[American action in Iraq will] create a hundred bin Ladens”

- Hosni Mubarak (President of Egypt)

Another CNN correspondent advised superiors that the “gee whiz” style of Walter Rodgers, and others like him, were causing great offence throughout the Islamic world.

(Somewhere in Iraq, next day)

“It is a breathtaking sight to see it!”

- Spokesman for George W. Bush’s administration

Having left a trail of devastation and dead bodies in their wake, Walter Rodgers reported that he and his boys were about to “bite a chunk off Baghdad”. Many in the Islamic world saw him as the appalling living embodiment of America in her war of conquest and revenge.

(Amman, Jordan, same time)

“What can the world do to confront the overwhelming superiority of the US airforce? Nothing more than face up to it with hatred of America, its policies and the Bush administration. It is possible that the weapon of hatred will prove more effective and more enduring than that of the American airforce.”

- Fahed Fanek (no advocate of the hatred he describes, in the normally mild ‘Jordan Times’)

The day’s front-page colour picture in the ‘Jordan Times’ newspaper was more candid and eloquent than any words. It portrayed an Iraqi father, wearing a dusty grey jellaba and with his arms spread wide, whilst he screamed at the sky in grief. At his feet, in a single open bare-wood coffin, lay huddled the three bloodied bodies of his children. They had been sheltering alone in a simple dwelling, which was then attacked by an American tank.

(Alexandria, Egypt, same time)

“America and Israel are one enemy, Iraq and Palestine one cause!”

- chant of a massive crowd in Alexandria, Egypt

Similar expressions of shared grief and hatred could be seen on the faces of most of the massive crowd of demonstrators, gathered in Alexandria’s Tahrir Square to protest against American actions in Iraq.

(Near Baghdad, Iraq, late April 2003)

“[The Americans and British have] utterly failed to comprehend the character of the people whose lands we have invaded, and for that we’re likely to find ourselves paying a high price beside which the body-count on both sides in the Iraqi conflict will seem trifling.”

- Jonathan Raban (‘The Guardian’ newspaper, UK)

“Why do you and your fellow Muslims seem to despise us so much?” John, a young US Army interrogator asked, whilst sitting next to the bed of the current subject of his questioning, currently recovering in an American mobile army surgical hospital, or ‘MASH’. In contrast to the medical facilities in nearby Baghdad, this unit was not without electricity and water, nor possessed little equipment and few drugs after recent looting.

“I personally do not despise you,” the equally young Ali answered, in his excellent English, “but, to understand a Muslim’s perspective on recent affairs, you must try to understand the character of an adherent of Islam, particularly an Arab. You see, to us, words like ‘self’, ‘community’, ‘brotherhood’ and ‘nation’ do not mean the same as in the Christian west. We are overwhelmingly social beings, driven by commitments, allegiances and other relationships to others, some far afield and across borders, such as our Palestinian brothers. Insults or harm against our extended Islamic family, or ‘Ummah’, are felt as if they were inflicted on ourselves. That is why the faces of anti-war protestors in the Middle East do not display the vicarious outrage of those elsewhere but instead expressions of genuine intense personal affront and even injury.”

“I do resent your presence in my country,” Ali continued, “because of my distrust of your motives for being here and the death and destruction you’ve caused.”

“But,” the American Army Lieutenant replied, “we were responsible for far less deaths than Saddam Hussein has caused in the past, and probably would have perpetrated in the future. We also represent the deposition of his obnoxious regime and freedom for the Iraqi people.”

“We would have achieved his downfall ourselves in the end,” the wounded, obviously erudite and informed prisoner quietly responded, “and I believe that US dominance of Iraqi affairs doesn’t constitute freedom.”

“How would you have deposed Saddam otherwise,” John enquired incredulously, “as his regime was all powerful? I’ve seen the cowed people. Even now he’s gone, many are still terrified.”

“Simply because his regime was rotten to the core,” the eloquent Ali answered, “and the putrefaction would have eventually caused the whole rotten edifice to collapse. I know that my assertion might seem unbelievable but so did the rapid end of communism in the USSR not so long ago. History shows that scoundrels like Saddam and his cronies cannot suppress the people forever.”

“But how long would that have taken to achieve,” John asked, “as he’d already been in power for almost a quarter of a century and had sons to carry on after his death?”

“I don’t know,” Ali replied, “but I do know that their tyranny wouldn’t have lasted forever. It actually probably only lasted for so long because of American support, afforded to the regime during the disastrous Iraq-Iran war. The friendly attitudes of the USA only changed when its oil interests in Kuwait were threatened, and please don’t try to test my intelligence by suggesting that, if that country had not possessed vast energy reserves, your nation would still have launched the last Gulf War!”

“Well regardless of such history, isn’t it better for Saddam’s regime to end now,” John enquired, “with the lives sadly lost probably being the lesser and therefore better price to pay than many more years of despotism and atrocities by a cruel regime?”

“You may be correct,” Ali responded, “but the action of the coalition, led by America, and premature and presumptive in the opinion of most of the rest of the world, means that we shall never know. I also don’t think that those maimed, like me, or the families of those killed in the conflict will agree with your assertion. I additionally wonder what gave the US the original right to attack us, and what truly encouraged them to do so. After all, I understand that it’s the first time that your country has gone to war against a non-belligerent nation. As I said before, I distrust your motives.”

“But my country is a democratic, freedom-loving, humane country,” John announced, with genuine belief, “which is always on the side of liberty and justice for all, as we were during two World Wars. We are currently fighting a campaign against terrorism and have been mandated by the United Nations to be here to remove weapons of mass destruction. Unlike Saddam, we also show respect, as we go about our business, for the conventions of war. We’ve no motives other than freedom for Iraq!”

“Complete hypocrisy!” Ali retorted.

John was both astonished and annoyed by Ali’s defaming declaration but managed to maintain a diplomatic cool to ask the young man instead to justify his statement.

“Well,” Ali replied, “if you’re really interested in my views and have the time to listen to them, I’d be happy to tell you why I believe that your countrymen, or at least many of its past and present leaders, have been deeply hypocritical.”

John, now more intrigued than annoyed, advised that he did indeed have the interest and time to hear Ali’s explanation.

“Then,” Ali responded, “I’d like to give my views without interruption, if that’s, as you Americans put it, OK. I’ll be happy to listen to your own counter-blast after I’ve finished. I’d also like to address the issue in the order of attributes that you afforded your country. As I do so, my intention is not to excuse Saddam’s appalling rule but to demonstrate that those who have ended it should not be so self-righteous and confident that they believe they know all the answers for the future of this country or the Middle East.” John nodded acceptance of the young hospitalised prisoner of war’s terms for the debate.

Ali then paused briefly to gather his thoughts before opening his case by stating “I believe that you first described your nation as ‘democratic’” John again nodded in agreement, but, on this occasion, with incredulity that the young Iraqi could start by attempting to deny the USA such an epithet.

“I heard about your last Presidential election,” Ali informed, “which brought the chief protagonist of the invasion of my country to power. I understand that Bush won with less of the popular vote than his opponent, Gore, on a turnout of only about 50%. In other words, more than three-quarters of the electorate did not vote for the supposed winner. Moreover, Bush’s victory was secured by devious happenings in Florida, where his brother is Governor, and the Supreme Court, where his party had the majority of the Justices. I’m sure that Saddam would have been proud of such undemocratic but amazingly successful manoeuvres!”

“As for respect for other democracies and being freedom-loving, did the CIA show either when it helped Pinochet to topple Allende in a coup in Chile, which resulted in the torture and murders of many people and the imposition of what was basically a fascist state? Were your politicians and secret agencies displaying such virtues when they helped bloody repressive right-wing regimes to assume and maintain power in other Latin American countries for much of the 20th century, and whilst plotting either to invade Cuba or assassinate Castro after his popular revolution. The latter might have gone sour over the years, but how much of that is due to American attitudes and embargoes?”

“I also believe that America simply demonstrates its ignorance of Islamic society by continually advocating that Muslim countries should adopt democracy, or ‘al damokratiyah’ in Arabic. We have no history of desiring such a political system, particularly in the two predominantly Shiite countries, Iraq and Iran.”

“Have you had a chance to look at our Shia mosques during prayer? There, you’ll regularly see many hundreds of worshippers, sitting on the ground in neat serried rows, listening to the sermons of ayatollahs. In Shiite societies, only very dominant and forceful leaders can overcome the power of the Islamic priesthood.”

“As for Americans being humane and being respectful for liberty and justice, I do not consider the execution of young men, who were juveniles when they supposedly committed murder and were convicted on often dubious, racially biased evidence, as exhibiting such qualities. I understand that many of these injustices, which would be banned in most other so-called civilised western nations, occurred during Bush’s tenure as Governor of Texas and is a legacy that his state is maintaining.”

“I have additionally heard that the USA does not recognise the International Criminal Court, primarily because it is worried that some of its citizens, such as Henry Kissinger, might be brought to account there for alleged crimes against humanity. This policy does not seem to suggest a country with a clear conscience. The failure to ratify the relevant treaty is also apparently causing some embarrassment because this judiciary would have been an ideal forum in which to try members of Saddam’s regime.”

“With the two World Wars, it is my understanding that the USA carefully kept out of both, whilst enriching itself by feeding the avaricious needs of the combatants, until, in the first, its lucrative Atlantic trade routes were threatened by German U-boats and, in the second, Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and Germany declared hostilities. In other words, your nation rather selfishly kept neutral until its economic interests or actual homeland security were attacked.”

“You say you’re conducting a war against terrorism but Iraq is not really a base for terrorists. Abu Abbas, whom your forces have arrested, was living in Baghdad with the acquiescence of both the previous US administration under Clinton and the Israelis, as a result of the Oslo peace accords, first signed in 1993. Also, with Saddam’s regime being very much a secular one, Hussein and the religious fanatic, Osama bin Laden, and his followers in Al-Qaeda, despised each other.”

“I additionally remember that the USA has itself not been unwilling to support terrorists if such action suited. For example, do you remember the Contras in Nicaragua, who were fighting against the Sandinista government, whose accession to power had been verified by popular vote and which had ended 47 years of suppressive corrupt rule by the American-sponsored Samoza family.”

“It is interesting that your supposed mandate for military action in Iraq is not recognised by the United Nations or the majority of countries on the Security Council and in the world. Many lawyers argue that the coalition invasion of my homeland has been illegal. However, respect for international law and agreements seem very low on the Bush government’s agenda. It could be argued that the most threatening weapon of mass destruction the planet currently faces is pollution, particularly by greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, the USA, the biggest perpetrator of such damage by far, has now reneged on the Kyoto environmental treaties, which Clinton had agreed to, because of the successful lobbying on Republicans by big business.”

“I assume,” Ali continued with clear scepticism, “that such political decisions were not, in any way, influenced by the fact that the Republican party receives substantial donations from big business, or that such enterprises often employ members of the administration when they’re out of office. I’ve also been interested to note that one of the first large contracts to be awarded to a company, to assist with the supposed reconstruction of Iraq, has been granted to Halliburton, formerly controversially led by your Vice-President, Dick Chaney.”

“I observe that no weapons of mass destruction, your reason for your invasion of Iraq, have yet been found in my country. As a US Army Officer, I also suppose that you know which nation actually has the largest number of such weapons, both nuclear and chemical. Americans say that their possession of such terrible arsenals is a deterrent but did you know that your military seriously considered the offensive use of nuclear weapons in the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars, having already utilised such bombs against Japan in 1945. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese countryside and people are still suffering from the effects of such chemicals as Agent Orange. As for nerve gases, how can you possibly justify your own ownership of huge stockpiles of them if you consider them grossly immoral? Surely, such an attitude should prevent you from employing them even if they were used against you?”

“As for the conventions of war, such as those formulated at Geneva, I suggest that you tell your prisoners from Afghanistan, whom you hold at Guantanamo Bay, about your respect for such agreements. Did you know that the Americans are holding boys aged as young as 13 amongst the 660 captives, all of whom are being held indefinitely without charge, trial or access to lawyers or family?”

“As well as disregarding the Geneva Agreements, the American policy at Guantanamo defies the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, which, of the 190 or so United Nations’ members, only the US and the government-less Somalia have not ratified.”

“You declare that America’s only intent here is to secure freedom for Iraq. However, I have already heard that members of your government have just decreed that one option for the future of my country is to be forcibly excluded from the agenda. Surely, if the majority of the people want an Islamic state, we should be permitted one, even if such a development irritates our so-called saviours?”

Ali approached his conclusion by giving John the benefit of the theory developed by his father and him about America’s real furtive intent in Iraq, which now also included a desire to dominate the Muslim world. “You’ve already started trying to harass Syria and Iran,” the young man suggested, “whilst in Israel you’ve taken the opposite stance with the Jews. There, you’ve upset the Palestinians through showing clear partisanship, whilst professing to be peace-brokers, by advising that you won’t use your power to force your Judaic allies into a truly equitable peace agreement.”

“You’ve also managed to exacerbate matters,” Ali commented, “by appointing the friend of Chaney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, the seller of missiles, Jay Garner, to run the interim administration of my country. Did you know that this purveyor of weapons of mass destruction hardly endeared himself to Muslims by signing a statement criticising the Palestinian Authority, whilst praising the Israeli defence forces, whom we regard as murderers of many innocent Islamic men, women and children? The Jewish weekly publication entitled ‘Forward’ triumphantly headlined his appointment as ‘Pro-Israel General Will Oversee Reconstruction Of Postwar Iraq’. Naturally, this extremely arrogant and insensitive move not only enraged me but most of the Arab world. I suspect that such lack of diplomacy was deliberate and entirely in keeping with your present government’s intent to teach the Middle East a humiliating lesson. However, it’s a lesson that might one day rebound on the teacher!”

“At least to much of the Islamic world,” Ali remarked, “the actions, policies and postures of the USA, which I’ve described, are intensely hypocritical. Under Bush, you also seem to be acquiring a taste to be the world’s bully, which, in my eyes, might make you morally similar to Saddam, who was the Iraqi version.”

“You seem to us to be the new crusaders, launching a ‘war on evil’, led by the fundamentalist Christian zealotry of the Bush administration. This is helping to bring bin Laden and his ilk in from the margins to the centre of Islamic thought, giving Al-Qaeda a degree of legitimacy in the Muslim world unthinkable just a year ago. I truly fear the consequences of what you’ve done!”

Now it was time for John to respond to Ali’s perceptions. However, all the astonished young American could say at first was “But we saved you and your country.”

“Do you really think so,” Ali replied, “or have you made matters far worse in the long term for everyone?”

“Well, at least we saved your life,” John retorted.

(Baghdad, Iraq, early April 2003)

‘[The invasion of Iraq will] open the gates of hell.’

- Amr Moussa (Secretary-General of the Arab League)

Ali was soon humiliatingly forcibly stripped naked and paraded in front of the appalled watching throngs, close to the body of the previous victim of the Baathist militia. However, the shamed, petrified, nude 22 year-old was not tied between two people carriers but was instead held firmly and immobile by guards, his hands still handcuffed behind him.

The smirking militia leader then produced an enormous and very sharp knife, and began to advance towards Ali who, in response, struggled fruitlessly against the hands that held him. The 22 year-old was unsure what the man, armed with the blade, intended to do but, having witnessed the earlier horror at this location, he was sure that the weapon would be used for something very unpleasant, with his own naked body the focus of the action.

Ali began to kick out to try to prevent the progression of the militia leader but his desperate defence was soon overcome by a heavy, accurate punch inflicted on his balls. The 22 year-old’s prospects for further resistance were then further reduced when his ankles were tied tightly together with rope, whilst he was helplessly distracted by his genital anguish.

As he slowly recovered from the agony perpetrated to his crotch, the proud Ali could not help but eventually look through tear-filled eyes at the sinister militia leader, still sneering and now positioned immediately before him. The 22 year-old wondered whether the man intended to use his knife to cut his victim’s throat or extract his heart, or simply to embed the blade deep into the young man’s stomach before performing fatal damage inside.

Ali therefore experienced both shock and horror when he felt his substantial genitalia being gripped and stretched downwards harshly, before the cold steel of the militia leader’s weapon was presented to the side of the 22 year-old’s suddenly very vulnerable scrotum. “No!” the young man pleaded, whilst already knowing that his entreaty would be fruitless.

“Yes!” the smiling militia leader exclaimed, as be began to saw quickly through Ali’s scrotal flesh. The 22 year-old’s distress and shame were then compounded when his doomed cock, incongruously suddenly hard, gushed copious white fluid onto the concrete floor below, whilst a different form of public dismemberment from that witnessed previously at this spot was being perpetrated in the car park.

Ali’s acute pain overwhelmed any orgasmic feelings his body might have felt, a situation evidenced by his continuous tumultuous screaming, which echoed around the vicinity. As many of the unwilling spectators looked away, unable to observe the end product of the militia leader’s work, the victim’s agonised, appalled and tearful eyes were then presented with the spectacle of his severed sanguine genitalia in the dismemberer’s right palm. However, the further shrieks of the freshly nullified eunuch, whose blood was pouring from his horrific wound, were suddenly drowned out by the loud rumbling noise of tanks.

Most of the people who had been witness to Ali’s emasculation were well accustomed to the sounds of the Russian-made tanks of the Iraqi army. However, the latest hullabaloo seemed different to the heavy cumbersome ancient mobile weaponry of the Republican Guard. This perception seemed confirmed when a few distant voices cried out, in Arabic, “Americans!”

The militia leader immediately threw Ali’s severed bloody genitalia to the ground and knifed the 22 year-old in the stomach, before withdrawing his blade and suggesting to his men “Let’s get out of here!” Soon afterwards, two people carriers, full of Baathists, quickly escaped the appalling sanguine scene, whilst most of the unwilling spectators similarly vanished. However, a few brave considerate persons ran to try to assist the new eunuch, now collapsed to the floor, whilst some other intrepid souls remained to greet the arriving Americans.

Soon afterwards, Ali found himself in an American armoured vehicle, which displayed a large red cross on the side. The now unconscious 22 year-old was being attended by a couple of disgusted US Army medics, amazed that their young patient was still alive.

Physicians at the US mobile army surgical hospital were thankfully subsequently able to save Ali’s life. The proficient American medics had fortuitously managed to stem the 22 year-old’s blood loss just in time, whilst the knife wound to his stomach had somehow avoided his vital organs.

(Baghdad, Iraq, late April 2003)

‘[US soldiers are] committing suicide by the hundreds at the gates of Baghdad [and are] having their stomachs grilled in hell. We made them drink poison last night, and Saddam Hussein’s soldiers and great forces gave the Americans a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Honestly!"

- Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf (Iraqi Information Minister)

“Well, at least we saved your life,” John had retorted.

“I don’t want to seem ungrateful,” Ali commented, “but, given everything, I wonder whether you really have. I wonder whether the clown, Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf, might have been unwittingly talking some sense after all!”

THE END

of

‘PERCEPTIONS’

by

PUEROS