The fifth authority.

 Our Muslim and Arab leaders are good at making their worst defeats look like great victories and they’re great experts in this field. And I see that the free world is an expert in making their great victories look like defeats and this is the reason why Arab leaders lose again and again while the free world triumphs again with less sacrifices.

 The sharp criticism to each process enables you to avoid the mistakes of the previous experiments and turns errors to useful lessons, and this is great. But this time I see that the western media has went beyond the limits of objective criticism and rational pursue for truth.
The media are not displaying their view point leaving the decision making to the audience. I see that the media are pushing us to adopt their opinions and this is totally unacceptable.
The media is losing credibility among audience and this is happening so fast and it is a huge mistake.
 I want to say to the media: by continuing like this you’re taking the dictators and terrorists’ side and you’re feeding their arrogance when you say "We were wrong when we went to Iraq" or "Iraq was better off before the war and Iraqis and the world are suffering because of the war" and you’re using the failure to find the Iraqi WMDs and the casualties among Iraqi civilians as a weapon in this media war.

 It seems that we need to review the past for a while to remind ourselves of what happened; Saddam produced WMDs and this is a fact that no one can deny because Saddam himself announced in a speech in April 1990 that he had such weapons and he threatened to "Burn half of Israel". Saddam used these weapons against Iraqis and against Iran and he sought to possess WMDs as he declared in many occasions. He was trying to possess what others don’t have to satisfy his lust for power and he wanted the most lethal weapons to make himself beyond the reach of anyone while he continue his oppression to his people and while blackmailing his neighbors.
After the 1991 war, Saddam declares that Iraq has destroyed all those weapons and the only proof available is his words. So could we had to depend on his words and promises? This is insane of course but let’s assume for a minute that he decided to get rid of those weapons. What guarantees that he wouldn’t try to produce WMDs again? UN inspectors?!

 Did Saddam’s regime deal with these teams with transparency? Were they really able to track and uncover Saddam’s programs? I don’t think this was a good choice to make because Saddam imported 300 missiles (of unapproved range) ten years after the 1991 war in an illegal way that violates the agreements he made with the world.

 It was simply a regime that you can never trust and it’s a blunder to trust such dictators.
I think you should take in consideration here the Iraqis’ vision regarding this subject because we know about dictatorships more than anyone else as we lived for so long under one of the worst of them and we know about the dangers of WMDs more than many others because they were used against us and Saddam’s programs to produce these weapons depleted our resources. Although you suffered from terrorism we’re more able to explain the dangers of terrorism because Iraq has become the main field terrorists chose to fight their war in. Don’t tell me that this’s a bad side effect for the war, instead you should know that terrorism chose to fight this war because terrorists knew that the war is aiming at them.

 Now, let’s see what was the actual result for operation Iraqi freedom and the question here is: what are the greatest dangers that threaten the world?
 
- In my opinion, the first danger is dictatorship because it represents the source for terror, ignorance, poverty and organized murder. It leads people to despair and loss of confidence and with the aid of extremists preachers, make men seek to end their lives either as individuals or they decide to take others’ lives with them.

- The second danger is the spread of WMDs or the possession of these weapons by crazy regimes.

- The third one is terrorism that targets everyone and tries to kill everyone.
Here, I’m going to suggest a poll that differs from the polls that are designed to serve a private agenda.

 And I’m going to list what I see as the most important questions that must be asked to verify whether the operation was a success or not and whether it served Iraqis and the world or not.

-Do you think that Saddam had he been left alone would have developed WMDs?
-Do you think that Saddam’s regime represented a danger to his people, the region and the whole world?
-Do you think that Saddam, and had he been able to produce WMDs would have threatened his neighbors and possibly the west?
-Do you think that dealing with such threats, if you believe they existed, was a matter of urgency?
-Do you think the inspection programs were effective, safe and cheep?(think about Iraqis’ money here too)
-Do you think that Iraqis were going to revolt against Saddam soon and what would it have cost Iraq?
-Do you think the parties who would have carried such revolt would have been moderate?
-Do you think there’s a real possibility for a totalitarian regime or a dictatorship to rule Iraq and kill millions of people again?
-Do you think that more than 200 thousands of Iraqi security forces (with their families), the government, all the parties that are going to participate in the elections, the Kurds, a good percentage of the She’at, some unknown percentage of Sunnis (including some influential clerics), all other minorities and most of the government employees (with their families) who have benefitted from toppling Saddam’s regime want and are helping in making the change?
 
-Do you think the fact that Iraqis keep volunteering to serve in the new army, police, National Guard; doing their jobs in every field; preparing for elections despite the terrorist attacks is a good sign that gives hope in the future?
- Do you think that future governments in Iraq will plan to build WMDs?
- Do you think that future governments in Iraq will be an ally for terrorists or make Iraq a training base for terrorists?
- Do you think Iraq now has a better chance to be a democratic peaceful nation that will not threaten anyone than before?

 After answering these question we’ll be able to find out whether the world is really safer without Saddam or not.

 We always support the free media as they watch the authorities, criticize them and expose their faults and corruption but it seems that the media's role has increased considerably lately and about to become more like a first authority rather than the fourth one as its role in affecting governments decisions and policies has expanded and this great expansion in power has given the opportunity for corruption to creep in, which gives rise for the need of another power to watch the media while they perform their honorable job; a power that has less interest in disfiguring realities and hiding facts and a power that is more attached to events on the ground. Here where the internet and fast communications among people can do a great job to put the "power of people" into action.
I want to say to the media: keep watching them and we’ll keep watching you. 
 
By Mohammed.