Mamluk and Mongol

2003: The New Hulegu (Saddam Hussein Speech)

by David Tschanz

On January 17, 2003, Saddam Hussein (then President of Iraq) delivered a typically long speech to the people of Iraq regarding the coming war. As with all of Saddam's speeches, this one was no different for its reliance on a mixture of religion, history and past glories, as well as braggadocio, to propagandize to the Iraqi people and the Arab world.

This excerpt is included principally because of its references to the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258. It is an object lesson in the immediacy the past plays in the Middle East, where insults and event last in collective memory and consciousness not a few days or weeks or years - but generations and centuries. The "Hulegu of the age" referenced in the speech is, of course, George W. Bush.

    Friday January 17, 2003

    Brothers. Baghdad in its known history had played the role of the Arabs' and Muslims' pure eye. It was God's spear on earth, the Arabs' skull, the reservoir of their wisdom and glorious heritage, the focal point of their civilization and great radiation.

    When the Mongols and Tatars reached the zenith of their strength and occupied China, India, Persia and other countries, they were unable to convert their ascent to strength by backwardness and destruction into a force capable of bringing construction, civilization and culture. The destroying force found its complex in Baghdad; the abode of civilization and peace, and made it its target for destruction which was rendered feeble because of the weakness of those who did not hold firm to the factors of ascent, its causes and results, and also of the weakness of its rulers and the betrayal of the traitors...

    Hulegu and his troops occupied Baghdad for forty days and destroyed every living thing in it. And because the people of Baghdad, I mean the rulers in it, were not quite prepared when the Mongols and Tatars invaded the territory of China, India, Persia and the surroundings, their invasion of Baghdad was in agreement of what history had described, and which later include Syria and the parts connected to it.

    But Baghdad was not in a position to defend itself properly, and therefore the eyes of Hulegu's army were not gouged out on its walls nor was it extinguished in its face the venture of trespassing it, or even to deny it the chance ofgoing ahead to others from the nation to attack them as it attacked Baghdad, till Hulegu's eyes were gouged out at the hands of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt at the famous battle ofAin Jalut, after they were able to get prepared for it and learnt lessons from the war before them and after Hulegu's intent and methods were revealed..

    History tells us that western peoples and circles had played, for their own reasons, a role in directing Hulegu to the east, indeed to the Arab world in particular. The Jews and their supporters played a remarkably malicious role against Baghdad in the past and this conspiratorial, aggressive and wicked role is today reverting to them, to the Zionist Jews and to the Zionists who are not of Jewish origin, particularly those who are in the US administration and around who stood in opposite front of our nation and Iraq...

    Brothers. The rulers of Baghdad in the past grew old. They renounced the role commanded for them by God and deterred those who were responsible for ... the defense of it when Hulegu came to the walls of Baghdad in the year 1258. Thus Hulegu came with the sunset and the rule passed to him with Baghdad as its capital. The Mongols succeeded and the sun set down from Baghdad at that time.

    Hulegu's army has now come again at this age to confront Baghdad after it has born anew with the sunrise, to record, with its new youth, a level of ascent which suits it well after it has abandoned its leading role for about seven hundred years.

    O Iraqis, you have indeed brought the sun back to Baghdad, and the city has been illuminated by you. How can a new Hulegu destroy the city or the great Iraq, and how can the brutal, the perfidious and the greedy defeat the will of determination of your brothers in Palestine as well or wherever the will of truth, steadfastness and resistance has ripened or blossomed in the breast of every believer who embraces a great confidence.

    Oh people. You know that the first human civilization in history was grown, blossomed and bore fruits in Iraq. From that civilization, the air carried its seeds to reach to whomever it could reach, who, according to his own personal opinion, added color to it to suit his own country. For this reason, it is the mother of civilization of Iraq which Hulegu of this age wants to attack. So, tell him in a clear, loud voice, oh evil, halt your evil-doings against the mother of civilization, its museum and basic witness, the cradle and the birthplace of prophets and messengers. Tell him to let people, each in accordance with his human choice, to build, and to build and to build which is necessary for raising high the construction, for work, for fruitful cooperation and for the dissemination of love among people.

    Tell him to avoid provoking hatred and evil doings so that every one can enjoy his rights, full and complete, in such a manner that might please God and bring happiness for him in the two worlds.

Mamluk and Mongol

Back to Table of Contents -- Against the Odds vol. 2 no. 3
Back to Against the Odds List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2004 by LPS.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com
* Buy this back issue or subscribe to Against the Odds direct from LPS.