“To break someone’s eye,” is an old Bedouin expression, which was turned into state policy in Iraq through the employment of a rapist like ‘Aziz Salih Ahmad. The people of Takrit were famous under the Ottomans for the way they would “break the eye” of any non-Takriti governor who  might be imposed on them by central government. The newly appointed governor, along with his wife and children, would be invited for a welcoming feast in the ho use of a local notable, On the way back, the party would be ambushed by a group of armed masked men. The governor would be forced to watch his wife being gang-raped, after which the men would whip off their masks, show the governor their faces, and disappear into the night, killing no one.  Such a governor could not ever again preside over the affairs of Takrit.  By the late 1970s, the most famous “aristocratic” Baghdadi families were having their eyes “broken” by the new upstart Ba’thi rulers, even though these families had long ceased to wield political influence or even economic power in the country. Young women from such families were kidnapped off the streets on their way to and from some of the famous clubs of Baghdad. They would disappear for a few weeks, and then reappear. Everybody would know what had happened to them, but no one would dare (or want) to say anything about it.

– Kanan Makiya, Cruelty and Silence (1993)

Up to this point my interrogator had been speaking very quietly. Then he suddenly screamed in a voice that almost brought the roof down.

“I shall bring him this instant and hang him up here! GUARDS! Bring his father. Bring that bastard father of his!”

The tears almost drowned me out when he said this. I couldn’t see a thing and felt like a complete degenerate for having brought such pain on the man who brought me up.

“Sayyidi, God preserve you, please, sayyidi, my father is paralyzed. He was one of Iraq’s nationalist officers in 1941, He is a sick man. Please, sayyidi, God preserve and watch over you, he is a great Arab nationalist.”

My breakdown and nationalist appeal seemed to impress the interrogator. I felt he respected me for the fact that I was trying to protect my father. Maybe he hadn’t known that my father had spent four years in the prisons of the ancien regime because of his role in 1941. The Rashid ‘Ali affair in 1941 is a big thing with the Ba’thists.

The following day, when I was on my ten-second Monkey Run to the toilet, I saw Nabeel, half naked, in filthy rags, just like everyone else. Nabeel had been playing the role of informer in a big charade prepared for my benefit. He was in the same boat as I was! Worse in fact. I spent forty-two days inside and was decreed innocent, whereas he, poor chap, got life imprisonment.

– “Omar”, quoted by Kanan Makiya in Cruelty and Silence (1993)

Five to ten thousand armed Iraqi Shi’ites, organized in small bands and recruited from refugees expelled by the Ba’th during the late 1970’s and 1980’s, entered the country through the marshlands around Basra on the second or third day of the uprising. They were units from the Badr Brigade, organized by the Supreme Islamic Council headed by Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim. [..] The first action of these angry young men pouring in from Iran seems to have been the storming of the Sheraton Hotel and the burning of the bars and casinos of the city of Basra. They then proclaimed the establishment of a Shi’i Islamic Republic in Basra. Surrendering or captured army personnel were executed, occasionally in “trials” presided over by clerics. These judgments were implemented on men who were in the eyes of the rebels “enemies of God”. [..]

Such violence, justified in the name of Islam, but more often than not motivated by the desire for vengeance, promptly terminated the lifeblood of the intifada: the flow of defections from the army. This explains the ability of the regime to regroup its shattered forces and strike back.  In Najaf, as we have seen, attempts were made to check the descent into anarchy by resident notables and ‘ulema‘, learned religious men, acting through the prestige of Ayatollah Khoei. But in Basra and Kerbala, whatever leadership there was came from Iraqis based in Tehran. These are also the cities where some of the worst rebel excesses occured.

– Kanan Makiya, Cruelty and Silence (1993)

Kambodsja gjennomgikk 25 års fødselsveer

Det gamle kongeriket Kambodsja fikk gjennomgå 25 års fødselsveer før den egentlige oppbyggingen av landet i det hele tatt kunne påbegynnes.

1949. Kongedømmet Kambodsja ble en selvstendig stat innenfor den franske unionen.

1953. De pågående kampene mellom franskmenn og vietnamesere spredte seg inn i Kambodsja. Kambodsjansk gerilja begynte å delta i frigjøringskrigen mot franskmennene.

1954. Genève-konferansen satte stopp for krigen i Indo-Kina. Kampene avtok og franskmennene trakk seg tilbake.

1955. Kambodsja ble helt selvstendig. Kong Norodom Sihanouk frasa seg tittelen, men beholdt posten som statssjef. [..]

1969. General Lon Nol ble utnevnt til statsminister med vidtgående fullmakter.

1970. Fyrst Sihanouk ble styrtet ved et militærkupp ledet av Lon Nol. Statsministeren proklamerte republikk og utnevnte seg selv til marskalk. Sihanouk flyktet til Peking. USAs daværende president Richard Nixon tillot amerikanske og sør-vietnamesiske styrker å invadere Kambodsja i sin kamp mot FNL. I Peking dannet Sihanouk eksilregjeringen GRUNK.

1971. Den nasjonal frigjøringsfronten FUNK hadde stor fremgang og kontrollerte snart den største delen av landet.

1973. USAs mest intense bombing av Indo-Kina ble innledet mot FUNK-geriljaen. I august ble bombingen stanset av den amerikanske kongressen. I Kambodsja proklamerte Lon Nol unntakstilstand.

1974. FUNK rykket inn i den tidligere kambodsjanske hovedstaden Gudong. Byen ble imidlertid gjenerobret av regjeringsstyrkene, men da geriljaen innledet en kraftig offensiv ved årsskiftet, ble Lon Nol-regjeringen tvunget til å overgi den ene viktige stillingen etter den andre. USAs president Gerald Ford krevde ytterligere bevilgninger til Lon Nol-regimet, men fikk avslag av kongressen.  Dermed var også geriljaens seier et faktum.

– Det hendte 75