Makiya to Asharq Al-Awsat: Bush Wanted an Army to Oust Saddam, an Army to Rebuild Iraq

Kanan Makiya. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kanan Makiya. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Makiya to Asharq Al-Awsat: Bush Wanted an Army to Oust Saddam, an Army to Rebuild Iraq

Kanan Makiya. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kanan Makiya. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Kanan Makiya, Iraqi architect and author of the “Republic of Fear” (1989), a best-selling book after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, described the Baathist regime in Iraq as “exceptional” in terms of totalitarian and authoritarian rule in the world.

Overthrowing Saddam’s regime in Iraq was a matter of “morality, not politics,” Makiya told Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

In another book, “Cruelty and Silence” (1991), a critique of the Arab intelligentsia, he not only talked about how the Baathists established an intelligence state that led to Saddam’s takeover of power in 1979, but he also documented how the Baathists fought war after war, committed genocide and repressed a revolution brewing south of the country.

Makiya recounted details from the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, when he met with then-US President George W. Bush. Makiya also met Bush after the toppling of Saddam.

He also encountered Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and other senior US officials before and after the invasion.

When asked about his lobbying for the invasion of Iraq and the ouster of Saddam, Makiya acknowledged that he did hold that political stance back in the 1990s based on the need to get rid of the Baathist regime, which he called an “anomaly.”

Makiya argued that the Baathists would have repeated their invasion of Kuwait and decimated Iraqi society if left in power.

He later admitted he was mistaken and even apologized for his thinking at the time.

“My big mistake was misjudging the Iraqi opposition that I worked with and supported after the 1991 war,” he said.

Recounting events from two decades ago, he confirmed that “the idea of completely overthrowing Saddam for the US administration crystallized after the September 11 attacks in 2001.”

On January 31, 2003, the White House summoned Makiya to a meeting with Bush.

Besides Makiya, another three independent Iraqi opposition figures were at the meeting. Cheney, Rice, and former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz were present from the US side.

Bush started the meeting by announcing that his administration had decided to overthrow Saddam.

He said, “not one army, but two will enter Iraq,” according to Makiya, who says he interrupted the president in surprise to ask what he had meant by two armies.

Makiya, quoting Bush, said that the US is deploying “an army to remove Saddam and an army to rebuild Iraq.”

Jay Garner, a retired US lieutenant general who in 2003 was appointed as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq, had contacted Makiya after the meeting with Bush.

Garner asked him if he would work with the US administration’s team to rebuild Iraq. Makiya declined. He told Garner he was an Iraqi academic and writer working with the opposition.

“I am neither a politician nor an administrator, and the Iraqi interest may not always coincide with US interests,” Makiya told Garner, thanking him regardless for the invitation.



RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled a displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said.

The bombardment hit Abu Shouk camp, which hosts tens of thousands of displaced people on the outskirts of El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.

El-Fasher remains the last major stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region not under the control of the RSF, who have been at war with the regular army since April 2023, AFP reported.

"The Abu Shouk camp witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF... killing eight people," the camp's Emergency Response Room said in a statement.

In recent weeks, El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since last year, has been locked in intense fighting between warring sides in a region also gripped by famine.

Thursday's offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan.

More than 450 people, including 35 children, were killed in several villages of North Kordofan, southwest of the capital Khartoum, according to a statement released this week by the UN's children agency.

"No child should ever experience such horrors," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now."

On Sunday, the RSF claimed to have killed more than 470 army personnel near the town of El-Obeid, also in North Kordofan, in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.

Independent verification of casualties in Sudan remains difficult due to restricted access to its conflict zones.

Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee, creating what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement crisis.

In December last year, famine was officially declared in three displacement camps near El-Fasher, namely Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam, according to the UN.

Since the Sudanese army regained control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has shifted its operations westward, focusing on Darfur and Kordofan in a bid to consolidate territorial gains.

In April, RSF fighters seized the Zamzam displacement camp, located near Abu Shouk.

The assault forced nearly 400,000 people to flee, according to UN figures, effectively emptying one of the country's largest camps for the displaced.

Sudanese analyst Mohaned el-Nour told AFP the RSF aims to redefine its role in the conflict.

"Their goal is no longer to be seen as a militia, but as an alternative government in western Sudan, undermining the legitimacy of the authorities in Port Sudan."

He added that the recent surge in violence in North Kordofan was likely intended to divert the army's attention from El Fasher, where the military is trying "at all costs" to maintain.