IRAQ THE MODEL

A few days ago, Mithal Al-Alusi; an Iraqi politician and the head of the "Hizb Al-Umma Al-Iraqiya" or the (Iraqi Nation Party) survived an assassination attempt when a group of terrorists attacked him in front of his house but his two young sons and his guard were killed in the attack.

The brave politician, despite his tragic loss made very strong statements during an interview he gave to RFI "Radio free Iraq".


Al-Alusi: Again, the ghosts of death are going out. They are ready to kill a person, ready to kill the peace, ready to kill the victory of Iraqis and their right to life. Again, henchmen of the Ba'ath [Party] and dirty terrorist gangs, Al-Qaeda and others, are going out convinced that they can determine life and death as they desire. Iraq will not die.

My children, three people [in all] -- one of my bodyguards and two of my children -- died as heroes, no differently from other people who find their heroic deaths. But we will not, [I swear] by God, hand Iraq over to murderers and terrorists.

We will pave the road for peace. If [the attackers] thought that by attempting to kill Mithal al-Alusi, the advocates of peace in Iraq will be stopped, then they have made a grave mistake. We will be calling for peace. We will be calling for peace with all neighboring countries [of Iraq]. We will be calling for peace with all countries of the region. And we will be calling for fighting terrorism by any means [and] against all forms [of terror].

They claim that Islam is a message of killing, while Islam is a message of peace. They claim that the principles [of Islam] encourage killing, while the only principles that encourage killing are the principles of the Ba'ath [Party] and of the heathens from Al-Qaeda groupings.

Read the rest of the interview here.


It's worth mentioning that his party's slogan for the electoral campaign was "Don't Let Them Win" and it's obvious who "Them" was in refernce to and I see that Mithal and determined Iraqis like him who are ready to sacrifice are winning even though the evil doers might appear to be inflicting so much damage as to make them look strong.

This reminds me of a situation that happened on elections day last week; an election center was attacked with mortars in Al-Ataifiya (Not Latifiyah) district where one of my closest friends lives. He talked to me on the phone that morning with a tone of amazement in his voice and told me that at the beginning there was panic among the people who lined up to vote but within half an hour after the attack, things came back to normal and the lines became even longer.
The people realized that there could be another attack but that didn't stop them from seizing the moment, the moment of choosing the way of life they want for themselves and their children.
"God, I'm amazed by the bravery of those folks, I was too scared myself but watching the people coming back made me feel strength that I've never felt before" These were my friend's words.

I wonder how long it's going to take the terrorists to understand that we're NOT giving up, no matter what they do to intimidate us, no matter how many pipelines they blow up and no matter how many of us they kill.

Everyday I see the media talking about "body counts" and the "cost of the war". Well, we know that there are innocent people losing their lives and we know that there's a lot of damage going on but it's not like we're discouraged by these losses.
We don't need those who 'weep' for us and count our brothers and friends who have fallen for the sake of freedom but we welcome those who are ready to stand on our side.

We accepted the challenge from day one and we realized that we will have to pay a price for our freedom and the cruelty of the battle hasn't changed that, in fact, Iraqis now are more determined to finish the battle than before, and to win.