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Transcript of Saddam's Speech on Arab Unity
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
What can the Arabs gain from their Grand Unity and its justice..!?
At a meeting of the National Leadership of Ba'ath Arab Socialist
Party held in early September 1997, the dialogue enlarged and
covered many areas to the extent that Arab Unity and Socialism
became, once again, one of its main topics, particularly what
concerns the question of : How can the citizens of the Arab Gulf
respond to their unification with the Arab nation on concepts and
joint action in these two fields!? Having seen the dialogue, the
views and ideas raised during it, Comrade Saddam Hussein made
the following speech:
Does an Arab country, especially the Arab Gulf countries, gain
from Arab unity or lose? How? Why!?
Despite the achievements which would have not been made in Iraq
about which we are speaking here as the base of Ba'th Arab
Socialist Party's live experiment, had those achievements and great
attitudes not been based on the ideology of Ba'th Arab Socialist
Party and its central and basic objectives: Unity, Freedom and
Socialism, the past twenty years have witnessed developments that
resulted in many phenomena in our Arab nation and its Arab
homeland. Those developments have raised many questions,
including, for example, that the per capita income in the Arab Gulf
States and Emirates has increased to an extent which creates a kind
of selfishness amongst specific communities towards Arabism and
Arab struggle, particularly against unity and socialism. Some
people began to consider talking about Arab unity as if an approach
to seize and control their wealth through integration. They also
dealt with talking about Socialism in the same way. So, what is the
means to find a common way for them to be unified with their
nation and for their nation as a whole towards its integral parts!?
It is essential for an Arab to realize and feel that he is an integral
part of his nation and that this nation, which Almighty Allah
bestowed upon it well-known characteristics and roles over the
time: its great and faithful missionary role or its glorious cultural,
national and humanitarian role, is great nation. He should realize
that any Arab country, large or small, is an integral part of this
nation and not the entire nation, even when it is distinguished by
its area, population, water and natural resources or even if it was
distinguished through history by a role or roles it played or chose
to play by its will. An Arab should also realize that his
belongingness to the Arab nation is a great honour because this
belongingness confirms his roots. This belongingness is not a
defect of him, but an ability, effective and deep capability. It is not
a burden.
The separation of an Arab from his nation makes him like a child of
unknown father, or at least like a stray child who does not know his
mother and father.
When any Arab country becomes an integral part of the nation's
depth, and when the nation becomes the depth of that country in
terms of history and heritage, thought and action, imagination and
aspiration, past and present, this will constitute a great immunity
and a high wall against violent wind and give an incentive of
creation, innovation and influence which extends to the distance
and range of this picture of working for and building forward. It is
not a state of weakening.
When one feels that he is an integral part of a nation of 200 million
people is something different from his feeling that he is just a part
of people comprising few millions who are subjected to the threats
and ambitions of big and super powers, and of regional powers
larger than it, such as Iran and Turkey, in an era when some states,
such as France, England, Italy and Spain, for example, find that
their history, capabilities, national feeling within their national
borders are not enough to make them capable to seize upon the
necessary chance, to grab what should be grabbed or to be immune
against those who are more capable than them. They find that this
can only be achieved by being a part of a larger union, within the
environment of the European continent, although it comprises
various nations, and not one nation, and despite all the wars, we
know, that were waged by the European states against each other,
the wars during which too much blood was shed.
Therefore, it is essential for an Arab to feel that he is an Arab, not
only in form or general name, but in belongingness. He should
realize that belongingness, to be genuine, should result in genuine
awareness and obligation of one's duties towards his nation. When
deep and genuine awareness arises, an Arab will find that Arab
unity protects his true patriotism because the genuine national
belongingness prepare a great depth for him which protects his
wealth and keep it away from being spent on unnecessary
expenditures. It will increase his wealth, renovate it, but will not
weaken it, in the fields of trade, agriculture, industry and services.
It will reduce and organize or cancel many aspects of the military
expenditures, in large and small countries alike. Therefore, the
genuine belongingness and the national bonds are not a loss, but a
gain even for the countries which did not make great sacrifices for
the sake of its Arabism.
In order to be a true Arab believing in the objectives of the nation,
such as Arab unity, which are essential for its strength and strong
building, has an Arab to look upon this matter in a premature and
shortened way on the basis of the neutral, naive and incapable
question: What can he gain materialistically or economically from
that belongingness just now!?
The belongingness of man to his nation is not a choice of him, like
to choose belongingness to another nation by applying for its
nationality, but rather it is firm choice and destined belongingness
in which man finds all his roots and sees his present, past and
future. He sees, like what he sees in his mother and father, that the
relationship with his nation is based on love, destined solidarity
which necessitates to gain what is great and even the partial and
entire items of his life on the basis of this belongingness. He
should also make the necessary sacrifice in order to maintain this
belongingness on the basis of its vitality and genuineness.
Therefore, that who thinks that he will lose partially in one field,
will make, he and his coming generations, great profits in moral
and material fields.
To further clarify this, here are some specific examples: If the Arab
Gulf States and Emirates, for example, consider how many
concessions and chances they lost, in terms of their essential
national interests and considerations or of their resources from the
emergence of Khomeini revolution to the scenario of involving the
Arab Gulf States and Emirates into the aggression against Iraq
under well-known pretexts, including the blackmail policy pursued
by the big powers under various pretexts, they will realize how
great it is for the part to be in the depth of what is more
comprehensive. And how great it is for a country to be a live part of
the Arab homeland, and for the people of any Arab country to be an
integral part of its glorious Arab nation.
However, there is a difference between that who considers the
entire past of the nation as his history and heritage, and that who
becomes just a negative phenomenon or a dark corner within the
nation. There is a difference between relying on unguaranteed
present which is unpromising in its developments and outcome, and
being a part of a situation in which one ensures being a genuine
part of its past in a manner that ensures the present and future.
A GLORIOUS FRAMEWORK FOR INTERACTION
The unity in which we believe, about which we talk and for which
we call, is not a passive, inevitable integration of the Aracountries
which eliminate their cherished and necessary characteristics,
butrather it is a glorious and ample framework for interaction and
great becoming whicexpresses the nation's capabilities, destiny and
its looking for what is higher, superior and the best.
The good sons of the nation will develop the experiments of Unity
in a manner that makes those experiments as better as possible in
comparison to the existing state of division and to another rejected
state which sees the possibility of collecting the Arab countries
mechanically in a manner that keeps every passive and positive
thing as it is.
The Arabs may agree, within the framework of their Unity, to
establish different economic systems, but those systems will not
contradict each other in terms of the objective and outcome. They
will supplement each other by their steps and actions. All of them
will contribute to the growth of capabilities within the society of
unity in which tranquillity and justice will prevail.
The Unity should be viewed as a process of national, humanitarian
and cultural creation which will give birth to a higher entity. The
new entity, resulting from that process, should be higher, superior,
larger, more secure, more immune, more productive and more
resistant to the challenges of time. This entity will not look over the
present, but it will not subdue to its passive aspects and will not
hesitate to take a decision on great advancement and creation. It
should be a part of both present and future. But all the negative
aspects of the present and its weakness should remain in the back,
while the new entity should look for the future to which this entity,
its existence and programmes are connected in a live manner.
While unity provides its parties with protection, equalizes an
individual to other individuals and a country to other countries
regardless of (its large or small size), and provides all parties with a
chance to enjoy the depth and merits of the large size, deep and
ancient history, immortal and abundant heritage and high status, all
are required, everyone from his position and according to his
characteristics, to provide the Unity with what he should submit. If
the poor in Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen and Palestine, for
example, are required to fortify the wall of the state of Unity by
their lives, whether it is wholly or partially threatened, everyone of
its sons, including its fat countries or parts whose fatness and the
low number of its population make them unable to confront the
threat by fighting, should contribute to the protection of the state of
Unity. Those fat countries and parts should pay to the poor people
of the nation. This payment is not a tax imposed on them, but rather
it is the belongingness dues. It is not possible for the brothers to
live under one tent and confront common destiny, while some of
them are starving to death and others are full to death.
The striking paradox is that the leaders of the erratic thinking,
whether those who are considered as nationals of the nation and its
countries or the foreigners who come from the dens of poisonous
wasps, while they speak about the world as a small village whose
guard and superior or rather its thief is the United Sates of
America, and as they promote the idea of imperialist globalization
led by the United States under the pretext of accepting the state of
fait accompli, including the call for making concessions of billions
of dollars which the Arab Gulf oil states and other Arab countries
have submitted, and are still required to submit under this or that
pretext or formal cover, and while they also stultify the possibility
of maintaining any distance between yielding to the will of others,
including the unjust resolutions imposed by the United States of
America on certain countries in the Arab homeland, independence
and dignity, and as they also stultify any call for nationalism and
patriotism against the hegemony attempts of the Western
imperialism, particularly the American ones, they consider the
interdependence amongst the countries and sons of the Arab nation
as a rejected matter. They also stultify the harmony between
national and nationalist issues, falsely depicting for themselves and
for others that the call for Unity will empty patriotism out of its
meaning.
By doing so, they pave the way for imperialism under the
leadership of America and its ally, Zionism, to impose their
hegemony under the cover of protection, where those countries and
small parts cannot resist their will and influence.
Now, in spite of all what we said: if things, including the Arab
relations and the prospective slogan of Unity, are put according to
the view of "win and lose" about which weak and suspected people
talk, before those who look at things according to this view and ask
them the following question: is it better for us, as Arabs, to give up,
for our common state, the state of Unity, part of our domestic work
and what we used to exercise, even if it is weak and inactive, and to
give up, for this state, a part of our wealth with a view to ensuring
both the present and future, or to give up this and what is beyond it
to the foreigner permanently and without assured guarantee of
future!?
I think that any wise and objective person, even if his nationalist
belief has not been completely matured, will choose his nation and
its united state. This is the way which connect the weft to its wrap
in a manner that leads to weaving the beautiful dress of the nation
which reunified its spirit in a new creation and defends the Unity
whether amongst the sons of the Arab Gulf countries and other
Arab countries or amongst all parts and countries of the nation with
each other.
On this basis, the bridge of the relationship and dialogue will be
built, although it has been already built, despite its name or form,
and whether its name was the Ba'th or expressed by Arab
nationalism, or by other titles, names or forms. But, we believe that
Ba'th as a national and revolutionary ideology, and as an
experiment in which Iraq represents the position that demonstrates
its characteristics, is the way which Arabs will choose for their
unity, destiny, present and future.
FOR THIS WE HAVE BEEN STRUGLING
For this, we have been strugling since our childhood and since we
were just students in secondary schools, and for which we then
struggled in all subsequent stages.
In this struggle and in the spirit of our action and perception, we
achieved victory over backwardness and crossed to ample prospects
whose doors would have been opened to larger scope of view, had
the embargo not been imposed.
However, with the capabilities of the impetus of principles and the
impetus provided by the stage of rise, the doors for the future are
widely and firmly opened. The present and future of Iraq, which are
measured by its will and faith, are more secured and bright than
other cases which do not believe in the importance of Arab Unity
and do not work for it.
By this and with a great feeling of responsibility, we have achieved
success in building Iraq and in the defence of it against the Iranian
danger, and in the defence of Arab Gulf States and the Arabs in
general during the glorious Qadissiyah.
By this and with its great depth, we confronted the devil of late
twentieth century, and we confronted the thirty-nation alliance
during the everlasting Um Al-Ma'arik.
By this, the evil was defeated, and we achieved victory and will
also achieve victory with the help of God, the Almighty.
Is Arab Socialism Necessary for Unity and for the Sons of our
Nation? How? Why?
Although we have answered, in the course of our speech on Unity
and its aspects, how we agree as sons of one nation to the
importance of Arab Socialism for our society to achievej, and since
the interest in talking about the importance of Socialism for Unity
and for justice is often less important than addressing the
importance of Unity as an imperative, practical and constitutional
expression when the sons of our Arab nation acknowledge their
true belongingness to their na, as one nation, and because what the
nationalist Arabs wrote in this field was generally little in terms of
scope and interest, we should address this subjin detail. Therefore,
we will re-address the subject of socialby answering the following
question: How can we find a means leading to a common way
amongst the sons of one nation, despite their different national
incomes?
Others may add that the starting point in the development of the
sons and countries of our nation, especially our people in the Arab
Gulf countries, and the degrees of progress they achieved, are
different.
First of all, we should say that low-income people and all the poor
in our nation will not object to the Unity of the nation, unless their
objection is mixed with anti-Arab influence or whims.
Otherwise, their interest lies in unity, especially those who are
aware of this matter to the smallest details. Their feeling towards
Unity reflects their high interest in and their eagerness to establish
its foundation, building and wall. Accordingly, the Unity should
express this fact, so that the speech on Arab nationalism and
destined belongingness to it could be true and sincere.
Although, the basis of the legitimacy of major decisions taken
within the framework of the nation, is that they should truly
represent the interests, views and conscience of the majority, we
want here to take care of the minority of our nation who may have
another point of view. We also want to increase the intensity of
awareness and farsightedness of the majority which believes in
Unity, so that the losses of Unity from within will be as less as
possible, even if the sacrifices made by all on the way of achieving
Unity and protecting it, are generous and great sacrifices.
Disparity in income exists among large families descending from
one grandfather, or even from one father. It also exists in villages
composed of people who belong to different families, and in small
cities of one country or one state. This disparity has not been an
obstacle, as long as it remains within its balanced framework, on
the way of achieving the unity of one country and of the joint
national work of its sons, even if there has been disparity in their
incomes and the degrees of their development. We find this
disparity in many states of the world, and in its parts when they are
reunified. There are some instances happened in recent years.
Germany, for example, has been reunified, although its western part
is more developed and the income of its people is the higher one.
Hong Kong is reunified with China despite its well-known high
income and level of technological and scientific development.
The existence of a common way taken by national or nationalist
gathering, despite disparity in ownership or the level of
development, has been a well-known case long ago since man has
known the idea of possession and ownership in the course of
human development. Thus, disparity in income, and subsequently
in the forms, volumes and areas of ownership is something existing
in all societies, including modern Iraq, that have been established
on a base of development which involves a reasonable extent of
constancy. Accordingly, it is not strange for the state of unity to
have such phenomena, whether they are demonstrated by certain
persons or by municipal borders to which the state of Unity is
distributed, when national or domestic considerations play their
role in this distribution. The parts resulting from that division will
be named as provinces or any other names in the state of Unity in
accordance with its circumstances.
A POSITIVE BIRTH
But, besides this fact, we should say that any society in which these
realities, I mean disparity in income and ownership, are built on
injustice or non-entitlement that make the majority feel grievous
unfairness, will witness the rise of conflict. If the state of that
society does not solve that conflict, the disadvantaged people and
the people of virtue will find themselves, under the pressure of
spiritual and moral
considerations, and under the feeling of responsibility within the
framework of terms and conditions of the holy solidarity,looking
for a solution of this flagrant discrepancy between entitlement and
non-entitlement, between the legitimate opportunity and the
illegitimate one, and consequently between right and wrong. When
those people do not find the constitutional institutions which are
centrally responsible for their state, are not able to find a solution
and to put an end to this or that criticized phenomena and cases,
they will search for another way. That way will finally be public
opposition, then a revolution. If the revolution will not be their
desired solution, when they fail to find a solution through the
existing constitutional institutions, their thinking, behaviour and
attitudes will be passive. They may not take care, or a large segment
of them, of external and internal security of their society and its
state nor of its progress, backwardness, pride, dignity or the
deterioration of its status and weight. Their positive feeling might
become so weak that they will lose the correct estimation that such
a feeling is one of the elements of the national rise, and it is
earnestly needed.
Since the state of Unity, as we said, is a process of creation which
should, rather must give birth to a positive entity, it will be a great
psychological and ideological loss if things within it turn to be
passive things. This might involve a dangerous feeling threatening
the Unity. Therefore, Arab socialism and its practical implications
concerning the policy of using public wealth and social
interdependence and solidarity, is imperative not only for the
aforementioned reasons and other reasons that we will mention
later on, but rather in order to maintain the unity too. Hence,
socialism is a means not only to create a new life in which love
amongst the sons of the nation prevails, but a defensive means that
makes the wall of unity a high wall which has no holes that could
be used against it by its external and internal enemies. And in order
that the souls of some desperate sons of the Arab nation not breath
out the sigh of death, as a result of these holes. If they despair of
closing or patching the holes, they will fall in the foreign hunters'
nets.
Since Unity and its state are positive situation resulting from a
glorious creation and as they are great representation of the
legitimate history and aspirations of our nation to resume its
national, humanitarian, spiritual and cultural role, keenness on
unity requires, inter alia, that justice should prevail the society and
that its sons should feel that they are all equal in opportunities and
in the patronage provided by their state, as long as they are equal in
their sacrifices, attitudes, actions and as the honorably shoulder
their duties and obligations.
Therefore, since socialism basically means social justice in
economic, cultural and educational fields... etc., and as social
justice is deeply rooted in the Arab society since the first revolution
of prophecy and message initiated by the merciful God against the
unjust thinking and behaviour of man, or it is the action of God, the
Almighty to teach man such form of justice which the then man's
thinking, behaviour and action had not realized, in either cases, or
in both of them, and as the Arab nation was not and would not be a
customs agent of illegal goods, rather it is an agent of honesty and
knighthood to carry God's banners, books and teachings through all
messages, orders, teachings and books that were carried humaniby
messengers of God, what is being practiced,in any dark corner of
other nations outside our nation, of what is rejected according to
the standards of our nation's heritage and to which the opposition
there has not reached the level of revolution, dose not apply to the
thinking, psychological building, attitude and action or reaction of
our nation.
For these reasons and for other more important reasons on which a
principled and moral position has been already taken, since an Arab
is obliged to correct the deviation and to be a good example to be
followed by humanity, not a bad one, his society, especially the
society of unity which is a society of highness and not a society of
falling into theabyss, should be prevailedby equitable rights and
duties. Justice has no meaning among the sons of one nation or one
state, if it is only provided for in positive laws or if it is only
understood according to its theoretical explanation in the heavenly
laws and repeated in a peacock like way, but it must, if it is wanted
to be serious, include an equal starting point towards the state
potentialities and the opportunities of its sons in life, in education,
teaching, health, culture and economy and related money and
wealth. It also should include correcting any illegitimate deviation
at the expense of others after its starting point. In all cases the
policy of investing and using the public wealth must be in
accordance with the interest of the majority of the sons of one
nation.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IS MORAL AND PRINCIPLED DUTY
The basis of the social justice that we call for is to achieve
interdependence and equality in opportunities on an objective
basis. And the more capable element in achieving the essence of
social justice, in economy and wealth, is the public wealth. In order
to be able to achieve justice in the state of unity,
the role of public wealth should be the role of an oar that maintains
the balance of its splendid ship,in a manner that pleases the poor
and the needy and to make them creative and able to influence
according to their numbers.
So, the social justice, in its socialist frame, is a moral and
principled duty and practical and constitutional necessity as well.
Its practical part protects Unity and kindles the feeling of unified
responsibility towards it and towards the society as we mentioned
before.
According to our concept, socialism, basically, is not based on
taking the increase in the ownership of other people, it is not
merely a distribution of the existing wealth, but it basically rests on
justice and wealth creation and development. Therefore its basic
duty is to stop any condition that may infringe upon the principle
of equality among the sons of one nation.
Justice among the sons of one nation in its semi-absolute meaning,
that is to say equality, can be achieved only by ensuring that all
stand on one horizontal starting point and in one equal array when
they proceed forward seeking opportunities.
The rules of measurement which correct the deviation that may
happen at the expense of others after the starting point, should be
semi-absolute in their equity as well. Except for the
abovementioned case, the gathering can change its march from
walking in array into walking in line without illegitimate
exploitation or oppression. For further explanation, here are some
practical examples:
If admission to universities is based, for example, on whims which
lack objective basis and criteria, the outcome will be unfair because
the people admitted to universities and specialized colleges may not
all fulfill the scientific requirements, while others who have been
deprived of admission fulfill those requirements. Therefore, we will
find later that the incomes of the concerned people vary, for some
of them remained mere secondary graduates while their colleagues
graduated from colleges of medicine, engineering and others. Thus,
the first one who became a clerk, assistant supervisor in an office or
a porter in a residential building with the limited income of this
tittle according to the established salaries or the prevailed prices or
wages, whereas his colleagues achieved higher incomes, because
they became engineers, doctors or scientists in physics... etc.
Accordingly, the harvest or its corps will not be based on efficiency
and entitlement, in which marks of graduation from secondary
school constitute the semi-absolute condition for justice, if it is
taken as a measurement. It is based merely on the whims which
admitted a group of secondary graduates to colleges and deprived
others. Had admission been based on the marks gotten by every
secondary school graduate, the case would have been different, and
the measurement of admission to universities and their colleges
would be called a semi-absolute just measurement.
Here is another instance, we take it from the merchant community:
If the state grants import license to specific number of them, not on
the basis of entitlement according to an objective measurement, and
deprives others not on specific objective measurement as well, the
outcome will be that some merchants will be rich without
entitlement, while others will be deprived of it.
Similarly, when the chance to be enrolled in schools, from the first
year in the primary school, is available equally to all, and the staff
of schools is provided in full according to a view based on justice
in treating the sons of one homeland and one state of one society,
and when education is available equally to all children, as it is the
case in the society of Iraq, the results will be just and justice will
be semi-absolute.
Why did we say here that justice is semi-absolute? And did not say
absolute, although all equally stood in an array on the horizontal
starting point?
The absolute justice basically can only be seen or achieved by God
the compassionate, the merciful. In the example we cited, there
have been chances taken by some people and their parents while
others and their parents have been deprived of them. Some were
born in countryside with all its difficulties, while others were born
and grew up in cities with all their facilities. So, there were chances
available to some people while others were deprived of them. These
chances might influence the marks they got and their success or
failure. As a result we will face outcomes that we have to deal with
on a semi-absolute just base, even if we ensure justice in
admission, because the student whose parents are teachers or they
read and write, while the parents of his colleague are illiterate, then
the results of their study and the level of their marks will be
different for this reason, and not due to the superiority of the brain
of the son of the teacher compared to the son of the farmer of the
illiterate worker. Nevertheless, in some cases the latter gets higher
marks than the first due to his seriousness, intelligence and
cleverness.
Now let us go back to the part of the strategic thinking of unity and
socialism, and their effects on the life of the rich people of our
nation, including the sons of our nation in the Arab Gulf. We
remind here, before our decisive word, that everyone basically
thinks within the limits of his responsibility. Therefore, the
blacksmith, for example, will be engaged in the normal conditions
of his daily life and work that make him, generally, skillful in the
field of his work and profession. And the farmer will mainly engage
in his farm within the limits that life provided him with, the same
thing is done by a train driver, an electronic engineer and a
mathematics or physics scientist, unless they have joined political
movements, so their thinking will take another trend, but when the
mathematics or physics scientists are secondary school teachers
their thinking will be limited to a specific level, and when they
work in an atomic field and carry out their duties on both
patriotiand natiolevels, they think within a specific area with a
different feeling of responsibility. So, on the basiof such examples
we will find that the person who is in charge of the personnel's
files, thinks in a way different from his director general or his
minister.
On this basis, the person who is in charge of lower responsibility
generally thinks within the scope of that responsibility, while that
who is in charge of higher responsibility often thinks within the
limits of his responsibility. This applies in general to everyone who
works within the boundaries of a kingdom, an emirate or a republic
whose population is several millions or hundreds othousands.
Definitely, the case will be different when he is part of a state
whose area and territorial waters extend from the Atlantic shores to
the Arab Gulf where two hundred millions of Arabs live in. A
clever scientist in physics, chemistry or atom remains just a draft
scie in a small state and the seeof a scientist may die inside him in
underdeveloped state which does not work actively in an area of
responsibility which provides his science with an opportunity to be
examined and prosper, for his spirit to shine and be high. So, we
find that a Chinese, Japanese or French scientist in atom graduating
along with a Moritanian scientist from a college or post-graduate
studies in USA, will assume his work eagerly to benefit his country
in the atomic field for military or civilian purposes, whereas the
scientist from Mouritania in the same specialty, for example, may
be frustrated and desperate after returning home, or he will be
forced to immigrate to a country that understands his science and
where his science can find the proper environment for action and
effect. According to the same measurement, the thinking scope,
about trade and economy, of the owner of a small shop in a popular
quarter differs from the thinking of that who imports large
quantities of goods from different origins.
Let us now enter directly, after citing these examples, to say that a
large part of the humanness, ability and knowledge of a portion of
the sons of our nation in the Arab Gulf area has been curtailed
or/and killed by conditions there, and that placing them before their
human, scientific and practical opportunities, both cultural and
spiritual, within the large environment, restores to them what they
had lost, and provides them with the ability to be creative, which
their situation fails to provide. This applies even to businessmen,
financiers and investors among them, although they differ from
others in specialization and finance. They know, like others, that
their chances in external investment in foreign countries will
shrink, and that even if they remain open until sometime they will
be hemmed in by perils, and that these perils and those besetting
their incomes deposited in banks are great. A large portion of them
will erode in accordance with the laws of foreign states there and
subject to the conditions and developments of the value of
currency, whether according to its current pattern or to special
plans. What applies to private funds applies also to the funds of the
state deposited with foreign banks, or deposited there, with a
greater degree of risk. The people of the Gulf must have heard more
endless stories than we have in this sphere, about how their states,
or some of them, are prohibited from withdrawing their money
except in compliance with special instructions and within specific
sums which may not be exceeded.
Thus, their deposits erode and they are prohibited from returning
those deposits, in their entirety, home, upon need. These deposits
are chased by Zionism and Western houses of finance, each
according to its own motives. Zionism will continue to chase the
deposits and investments in the West or in any country where
Zionism plays an influential role even if the Arabs concerned
comply with all Zionism's wishes and turn away from the very spirit
of their nation and its rights. This is because they are Arabs, and if
Zionism feels safe vis-a-vis this or that ruler, within a specific
period of time, because of his subordinatedness or his being a
client to its American ally, or because of his poor vision or poor
sense of responsibility, then it won't feel safe vis-a-vis the (silence
of honorable Arabs) in the face of injustice, including the sons of
the Arab Gulf. It won't feel safe from their outrage, or perhaps their
revolt for their legitimate rights and their usurped holies.
Furthermore, Zionism, in consequence of its very Jewish nature,
chases out any rival capital in the field of investment, and any rival
funds on the currency and speculation market.
The wide vistas and the safe haven of the money of the Gulf are in
the Arab homeland, their big tent which is of strong texture, high
pillars and firm wedges striking deep in the soil, the tent erected by
the nationalist, conscious and solid will in order that it may protect
all the big, medium and small tents in the Arab homeland above
which flutters the flag of unity over all national and local banners.
It is, at the same time, the wide vistas in which tremendous
capabilities are available, in order to guarantee against the risks
faced by Arab money when the people concerned in the state of
unity find that investment of public or private money is necessary
outside the Arab homeland.
Hence, is it a paradox that some Arab states should consent or seek
to become part of regional or international organizations in which a
new flag flutters above their flags over which flies the US or other
flag, as is now the fashion with the so-called GATT and
subsequently the World Trade Organization... and find it strange
that the will of the nation should fly over their will to strengthen
and heighten it !?
The living and permanent wealth is not merely oil which is
exhaustible or liable to be replaced by another source of energy, if
humanity is placed before its critical insufficiency or before the
possibility of finding a cheaper alternative, although its price is the
lowest price due to partition and egoism. The living wealth is what
is planted and created by the will of the people in their knowledge
and work, in the sphere of agriculture, industry and other fields,
and where such will is at a level capable of defending wealth when
it is threatened by foreign ambitions and their ferocious gale when
it blows yellow to extirpate eyes before roots.
Wealth, as such, together with trade, investment and depositing,
has no safe place and an arena where it flourishes, without the Arab
homeland in its entirety being open to it, without being supported
by all the capabilities of the nation and without the grand Arab
Unity, which plucks out egoism and fear from hearts, releases
energies and capabilities in order to soar to their clear sky and
future.
On the arena of the Arab nation, extending from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Arab Gulf, and its great capabilities, its economy flourishes
in order to be in various bright colours, all of which serving the
supreme interest, to the greater firmness and solidarity of Arab
unity. Each and every one of these colours suits its phase and its
circumstances and augments the splendor of souls and fortifies its
high fence.
Hence, the historical need of the sons of the Gulf for unity now,
with all its implications of social solidarity and justice, may be
more urgent than it is for Iraq, Egypt or Algeria. Considering all
you know about Iraq, it finds, according to the theory of the great
Ba'th, that unity is our start and destiny, the resurrection of our past
and the guarantee of our future.
Hence, it is all the more appropriate that other Arabs should see in
Arab unity as their goal and rush forwards to it with longing and
yearning. Otherwise, the coming generation and their
grandchildren, if not their children, will curse them if they do not
believe in it, enthuse for it and work consciously and earnestly for
its achievement.
At all events, Arab unity is brought about by the solid will and the
devoted endeavor, relying on God, of the national and nationalist
Arab leaderships, with the capable support of the crusadiand
consciomasses, or comes about, even when the will of the rulers
hesitates on the path of its achievement, through imposing the will
of the conscious masses, under the leadership of their crusading
revolutionary vanguards in the name of the people and the nation.
Saddam Hussien
8th Jumada al-Ula/1418 of the Hejira
corresponding to 10th September 1997.
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