Via Basel: Republic of Fear. My Time. Your Time.

We are all shaped and sculpted by our past, and trauma plays a major part in our personal and collective history. Whether it’s caused by an abusive parent or a vicious authoritarian leader it causes lasting damage, and treatment is difficult and complicated. There is lack of agency and profound fear in the abused in both scenarios. In addition, the lessons learned may be different. Some abused children become abusive adults, while others become compassionate and caring, learning from their parents’ mistakes. So it is with societies at large, some developing into more authoritarian, closed and cruel, others transforming to a more just, equitable, and kinder form of governing. 

Coming from Iraq, a country ruled and ruined by a dictator, I have been exposed directly and indirectly to the effects of these personal and collective traumas.

The book Republic of Fear was written in 1986, published in 1989, discussing “The Politics of Modern Iraq.” It describes in detail the ascendancy of the Ba’ath party and eventually Saddam Hussein and the reign of terror. (See excerpt from Warren Bass’s  New York Times article below.) I had left Iraq nearly two decades prior, but my family was still there and I had intimate knowledge and updates, and witnessed some of the players from the 1960s while I was still there. My family, like many others, was the recipient of that cruelty, having two close family members executed by Saddam’s regime in the early 1980s. The painting below was sketched by my late wife Rosalind in December 1988 at my parents’ home in Baghdad, Iraq. I took my wife and two children on a two-week trip several months after the end of the brutal Iran-Iraq war, to meet my relatives back home. The two seated women, one the widow, the other the mother of my murdered relatives, were engaged in an intimate conversation. Rosalind, the artist, finished that painting upon our return to the USA, capturing this sad unforgettable moment. Discussing this book in more detail is beyond the scope of this column. Sadly the carnage and devastation continued with more wars, embargos, occupation, and chaos. The effects today are terrible for that country economically, socially, and environmentally. The above historical facts are indisputable except for the intentionally blind and devious. My background, experience, and interest in history in general, shapes and informs what I’m about to state, some of which I have alluded to in past columns.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Women in Black (1991) by Rosalind Al-Aswad

This online publication, Escape Into Life, was founded by my late son, Chris, as an arts and literary magazine. It was never meant to tackle these foundational issues, democracy, freedom, justice, at least not directly, but maybe in artistic or literary ways of expression. And yet, I feel responsible and even compelled to express my horror at what is happening in my chosen country today. The arts and the media are one of the primary targeted institutions attacked by dictators. We are not living in a potential dictatorship. We are witnessing the early stages of dictatorship on a daily basis, in a broad swath of areas from the most private to the more public, from the social to the educational and economic and other aspects of our lives. The speed of this demolition of institutions, the Constitution, and legal norms is breathtaking. If we are not aware of it or are indifferent to it, “Republic of Fear” will not be another book in your local bookstore or on Amazon about a far away place, but an American version of it, a reality in your everyday life and your children’s and grandchildren’s, too. The effects of this takeover from democracy to fear will be felt not only here in the USA but throughout the world and for generations to come. Our current President’s alignment with dictators and autocrats elsewhere is alarming and prophetic of our future.  It might be good to recall that Saddam Hussein rose with and then purged the Ba’ath Party. Similarly, the current President used the Republican Party to rise and now strikes fear even among Republicans who jumped on his bandwagon.

I left Iraq before the rise of Saddam Hussein. I did not feel the brunt of his cruelty and fear but my family did. I did not have to choose between capitulation and resistance, living in constant fear or risking imprisonment and death. However, many did and perished and many more lived miserably in fear. I am eternally grateful for the freedoms and opportunities I enjoyed as a citizen of this country for half a century. At 79 years old, I’m in one of later chapters of my life. Yet, I do not intend to sit idly by, on the sidelines and wait for it slide into another more tragic American style “Republic of Fear.” In fact, I feel more youthful, energized and am honored to be part of the “Resistance.”

This is then, My Time and hopefully Your Time also to act, defy, and resist, each in his/her/their own way and capability. I will have more to say about these ways in upcoming columns. It is the only honorable decision for us. Living in Fear is not.

Basel Al-Aswad, father of EIL founder Christopher Al-Aswad, is a yogi trapped in an Orthopedic Surgeon’s body. His loves in life include reading, writing, hiking, enjoying nature, meditation, and spending time with his large Iraqi family; now, semi-retired, he is exploring new avenues in medicine, education, public speaking, teaching, and social engagement.

Article from New York Times by Warren Bass, Dec.15, 2002:

“In 1986, the Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya finished a book called “Republic of Fear,” a brilliant, terrifying look inside Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Publishers either weren’t interested or didn’t believe that Iraq’s Baath Party dictatorship was really that bad. It took Makiya three years to get his book published — prudently under a pseudonym — and even then ”Republic of Fear” didn’t make much of a stir until August 2, 1990, when the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait turned it into a sensation. When Makiya visited Egypt during the 1991 gulf war, he found pirated Arabic translations prominently displayed at sidewalk stalls in Cairo, alongside dozens of instant books, including one with the lurid title ”The Butcher” and another with a cover depicting Hussein with vampire fangs.”