Between Iraq and a hard place

On the streets of Amman, the capital of Jordan, in taxis, hotels, restaurants, pubs, pastry shops, city streets and Roman ruins, conversations concerning the likelihood of war in Iraq and its repercussions ignite with the merest “hello.”

Mo’ayyad, a Jordanian Muslim, is a 27 year-old teacher resigned to living at home due to the poor economy. Return of the Native Son by Thomas Hardy is his favourite novel as he sees it as an exploration of individualism.

“I remember as a child watching my father kill our goats,” he says. “He would kill three, one by one, the other two watching and than the just the one. This is how I feel watching what’s happening now. We watch America preparing to cut our neighbour’s throat, but we do nothing, we say nothing, we hope it will stop there yet know we may be next.

“I hope this war does not come, we’ve had too many wars, we all want peace and to make better lives for ourselves. Already the economy is so bad. Although I am 27 and work as a teacher I do not earn enough to have my own place. So I must live still with my parents and when you live with parents you are made to feel always as a child… they ask me where I go, why I come back late and so it’s hard to make your own life, to become something of who you want to be.”

Before watching Colin Powell’s multi-media presentation to the United Nation’s Security Council I head out of the hotel to buy supplies at a poorly stocked mini-market across from the Palestinian Embassy. The stocky middle-aged clerk, an Arab Christian who has lived in the United States, was preparing to settle in for what promised to be a marathon performance.

“I don’t like Saddam, but I don’t dislike him,” he admits. “He is what is needed in Iraq. Only he can keep the peace there. Iraq has Shiite, Sunni, Kurds, Christians, Mafia and many other groups that if not for Saddam would be trying to get power for themselves and killing each other. This is why Saddam is so hard on his people. It would be good if he wasn’t but he must be so hard. I think when Saddam is gone Iraq will be more crazy than Yugoslavia, more war, more dead. So Saddam should stay. I think America is going to make a big mess and get stuck in it.

“I hope America destroys the terrorists, they killed thousands of innocent people in America. They are dangerous and unpredictable. They would do anything, dirty bombs, chemical bombs, whatever. But Saddam working with Al Qaeda? This is not possible, it is a stupid thing to say. Al Qaeda is Islamic fundamentalist; they hate Saddam and want him dead. He also feels like this towards them. So this is just another story Bush makes up to justify getting rid of Saddam’s regime so that they can get the oil.”

In a service taxi from the bus station to downtown Amman, our young wiry driver asks if I am one of the hundreds of American military personnel now in Amman awaiting the war. I say no, stating my opposition to war as the solution to disarming Iraq. My answer yields a diatribe.

“What happens now is a crime! Saddam is not dangerous; Israel with its nuclear weapons, its hate for Arabs, they are the problem. Saddam dared to try and equal them, he always spoke for freedom of the Palestinians and the Israelis hate this and want him gone.

“The Bush Administration lies. They don’t want peace. They want oil. Saddam used Iraq’s oil to help his people, to lift them up and he wanted this for the whole Arab world…that we could be more developed, more dignified, stronger.

“We Arabs are quiet because we are not allowed to demonstrate. But we are filled with anger; it’s too much anger. What is this, the Saudi rulers are rich, they keep the oil and profits for themselves, but their people get little of it, they are kept down. This is the same in many Arab countries; the leaders, supported by the West, keep the people down. Well this was not and is not Saddam. Saddam has done some bad things, but many of those leaders that America supports have done much worse.

“A revolution would be good, we must, all Arab people, come together and free ourselves of the rulers and take our countries back from them and from the Western powers that keep thieves in control so that they can take the oil, take whatever they want from us and leave us nothing!”

Wandering around downtown looking for an Internet facility, I find Books@Café. This two-floor establishment has a bookshop, six CPUs, and a modern Bohemian café-pub-restaurant. The conversations of Muslim and Arab Christians create a decibel level like that found in a busy Dublin pub. Young couples lean against each other, some kissing. I ask three young Muslim women if I might photograph them, they consent and a conversation ensues.

Natalie, age 16, is half Palestinian and half American. She listens to all kinds of music and is currently into Nelly.

“There’s the Western side and the Eastern side here in Jordan,” she explains. “The Eastern side keeps the traditions going, and dress conservatively but we dress the way we like. There are Christians and Muslims on both of these sides. It’s usually the poorer people who are the traditional ones. I wear spaghetti straps, tight jeans, shorts, bikinis and it’s fine with my parents that I go to clubs and bars and stay out very late. But when I go in the downtown I dress with baggy jeans and long sleeves. In the downtown and in taxis you must be careful because you can easily be raped. But I think you’re safer here than in NYC.

“It seems now that everyone in the West thinks we’re like Osama bin Laden if you wear traditional clothing and have a beard. Why do they have this image of us? This is just not fair! When the World Trade Center was attacked we were not celebrating in the streets, we were with the Americans, we were crying and our hearts went out to them. As Palestinians, we know too well what it is to have family and friends killed, we have all had family and friends killed.

“If Saddam Hussein is like Hitler, Sharon is Hitler. Why do the Americans prepare to war on Iraq but support Israel? And while we don’t like Saddam, we certainly don’t want this war because most of all it will hurt the people of Iraq and then the Americans plan to make one of their generals the new ruler of Iraq. This is something we don’t want to see happen.”

I ask 22 year-old Khalil Hareb, a Jordanian Muslim with dreadlocks, if I can take his photograph.

“I had this roommate from America and she’d be laughing at my hair cause it looked weird and stuff, it was really curly like an afro,” he explains. “Then she was like telling me I could braid it into dreads. I’m into music and really like Bob Marley, but I didn’t know about the Rasta hair and so she turned me on to it and I got it done by a Jamaican guy who was hanging out here in Books@Café. And now I really like it, it’s really cool I think.

“This whole war situation is hard to imagine as I’m not into the political stuff. I’m not saying Saddam has those weapons, I don’t know, but if he does he should just clear them out because this area needs to live in peace.”

Entering the hotel bar looking for the group with whom I spend my evenings discussing and drinking, Doctor Hana, a Christian dental volunteer who owns the hotel with his brothers, calls me over to show me the text message his wife has sent him. He’d already demanded that the TV be switched to CNN from the Shakira video that has the punters transfixed.

The massage read, ‘Quick, turn on CNN for the latest details! Saddam Hussein killed his wife last night. He lifted up her skirt and saw Bush.’

“My brothers and I own another hotel in Jabal Amman, 25 years ago the Iraqis would come to stay there,” he recalls. “They were the richest people in the Middle East. The Iraqis were richer than the oil kingdoms, richer than the oil sheiks, believe me they dressed in the finest clothing, driving the most beautiful cars – and now they beg for food, the poorest of the poor in our streets.

“I do not now like Saddam. Before he was good, he made Iraq a great country, a rich country. But he will not leave even though this means war on his people. He, I am sure, could find a home in Libya, Russia or Cuba, but instead he stays and invites a war on his people.

“In 1945 the German general who signed the surrender did this when the document was put before him. The Allies said, ‘Do you not want to read this before you sign it?’ He answered, ‘Why? We have lost, there is nothing I can do now.’ Saddam should remember this and he should just go. When Nasser (Egypt’s pan-Arab advocating leader) lost in his war against the Israelis, he said, ‘That is all, I am finished, I will leave,’ and Saddam cannot win against the world, he cannot win against America, he knows this, he should retire and let there be peace.

“But, I don’t think Saddam is any danger to the Israelis. He has no plans against them. He is the enemy of the oil sheiks, the oil kingdoms and they fear and hate him because their people like Saddam and want a system like his, where the few do not keep all the wealth. They know this and fear him. But he’s not a threat to us or the other countries in the region. He even gives Jordan oil.”

Alomen, a thirty-something drinking mate, is a regional sales executive for an IT firm and once managed a video store on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

“I don’t know why some of you people do this,” he says, “coming over here to understand our culture and help us and then going back to your countries to work for peace, but by God is it appreciated. We want peace and we want better lives for our families and ourselves. May more of you come, may people make of the world a better place and one day may we all have leaders that listen to us instead of use us to further their greed.”