A Personal Apology

by Sami Jamil Jadallah

 
My sincere apologies goes first to the hundreds of thousands of Arabs, Christians and Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites), killed and murdered at the hands of foreign occupation and at the hands of criminal governments and criminal sectarian “jihadists” all over the Arab and Muslim worlds.
My apologies goes to the millions displaced refugees, forced to live in the outdoors in the rain, the snow and harsh winds, driven out of their homes by internal conflicts in Syria and in Sudan. My apologies go to the hundreds of thousands of children victims of the civil wars denied schooling and proper food and shelters and a decent future.
As I sit here in an “Arab” country waiting to hand over my work assignment, I could not help but stay tuned to the many national and international television networks watching the news, and the news are nothing good or happy but is full of killings, murder, suicide bombings, sectarian fights, sectarian incitement by clergymen who supposed to breach the message of God/Allah of peace and hope and revival of military dictatorships guardians and beneficiaries of the “Deep Police State”
As I sit and wait, I could not help but witness the lies, the propaganda, demagoguery, the incitement to violence on all sides of the conflicts in Syria, in Lebanon, in Egypt, in Sudan, in Iraq and in Yemen not to forget Somalia.
I sit and wonder how countries that live on international charities, that do not have enough money and funding for their people to spend on decent homes, schools, clinics, food and roads have enough money to spend on arms and weapons?
I also wonder how countries like Yemen, South Sudan, Mali, and Central African Republic with nothing but citizens walking barefooted on dirt roads and living in plastic and corrugated sheds hardly have any clothing or food could afford the kind of arms to use to kill each other.
The tragic event in Syria is beyond any description in terms of devastation and vengeance, no matter which side one is on, I could not help but wonder how much weapons and arms does Bashar Assad have and needs to wage such relentless war against his people when all along, the claims was that these weapons were for use against Israel and for “resistance”.
The West mainly the US, France and the UK were only too happy to strip Bashar Assad of his chemical weapons, making sure these chemical weapons are no longer a threat to Israel and continues to allow him to use all his arsenal to destroy Syria and his relentless war and against its people and when all when and if things comes to an end, he will have nothing to rule over.
I also sit and wonder how criminal misfits and mercenaries those who claims to be “Jihadists” claiming the words of Allah and Mohamed and Sharia as their guide could commit such ruthless crimes beheading unarmed citizens and prisoners of wars and how can such groups that claims “Sharia” can be such calluses in their vengeance. One must not forget that these “Jihadists” are sponsored and funded by Western powers in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Sub-Sahara.
The Arab Spring countries of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia are not fairing any better. The long awaited people’s revolution was taken over, hijacked by well-organized groups proved to be unfit and not yet ready to with plans to build nations. The Deep States of Qaddadi, Ali Saleh, Mubarak and Bin Ali proved to be too resilient to simply die natural death and at the ballot box. The military in partnership with business community were not about to give up the power and privilege they enjoyed for a long time and allow for rebuilding of new nations and democracies.
In Libya, while the people were looking forward to building new state free of fear and secrete jails and “people’s committees” with rights of citizenship did not know the Qaddafi regime was replaced by reckless ruthless militias self servings with narrow regional and ethnic agenda making on the verge of a failed nation no different from Iraq or Afghanistan.
Of course Iraq is not a different story. Those who came to power to topple Saddam Hussein, riding on top of the American tanks did not have a vision of a new Iraq free from fear with rights of citizens to all of its people, rather they replaced one regime with another inciting sectarian hate and violence causing tens of thousands of dead and failing to build national institutions and infrastructures. Iraq now is much worst than the days of criminal Saddam.
Apologies goes to the living or semi livings, citizens of Arab countries that saw the failings of post dictatorship “leadership” lacking wise, mature, professional selfish leadership one that put building the nation and serving the people as it top priorities. Post dictatorial leadership fell into the traps of power grabs, proved unfit to lead and unfit to manage, victims of its self-serving narrow interests. There are no reasons why countries like Tunisia and Libya could not manage to forge a road map to building nations of citizenship not subjects. There are no excuses whatsoever for the Tunisian and Libyan “leadership”. Same is true of Yemen where narrow selfish interests of Ali Nasser and the “South” exiled leadership standing in the way of reconciliation, preventing the nation from moving foreword rebuilding the nation’s institutions and infrastructure giving hope to the millions of Yemenis fed up with tribal wars and regional conflicts, investing in people not weapons.
I am not so optimistic that the Arabs can rise up to the task seek a place under the sun as free people, free from dictatorships free from wants and needs, free from self induced conflicts, free from sectarian conflicts incited by religious leadership (Sunnis and Shiites). It seems the Arab Spring was unable to “thaw” the Deep Police State. Never, never ever give the rights to be free, to live in a state by the people for All the people.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami, a Palestinian-American and a US Army Veteran (66-68), recipient of the “soldier of the month award and leadership award from the 6th Army NCO Academy, is an international legal and business consultant with over 40 years of international experience, in construction, hospitality services, conservation, and defense, in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. Sami is a holder of BA, MPA in Public and Environmental Affairs, Jurist Doctor from Indiana University. While at IU he was elected class president, student government president and chairman of the Indiana Students Association,

Active in peace movement as a co-author of the pre-amble for the One State for All of its people and voluntary service program SalamNation. A frequent contributor on national and international affairs. He resides in the United States.