(Arab News-Saudi Arabia) - Essam Al-Ghalib In Safwan, Iraq, men, women and children were playing it up for the TV cameras, chanting: "With our blood, with our souls, we will die for you Saddam." I took a young Iraqi man, 19, away from the cameras and asked him why they were all chanting. He responded: "There are people from the Baath Party reporting everything that goes on. There are cameras here recording our faces." "If the Americans were to withdraw and everything were to return to the way it was before, we want to make sure that we survive the massacre that would follow as the Baath go house to house killing anyone who voiced opposition to Saddam." "In public, we always pledge our allegiance to Saddam, but in our hearts we feel something else." I would hear different versions of that very quote several times over the next three days. The people of Iraq are terrified of Saddam Hussein.
2003-04-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive