'We are not frightened. We are not going to lose anything'
People of Baghdad were unbowed, write Hassan Hafidh and Dominic Evans
Thursday December 17, 1998
Iraqis, wearied by years of tension, yesterday shrugged off the threat of imminent US-led military strikes that could devastate their country.
"We are not frightened any more," said one Baghdad trader. "Whatever happens, we are not going to lose anything."
His comments echoed those of many Baghdad residents who have lived through war, sanctions and a series of crises with the United Nations which have taken Iraq to the brink of military confrontation already three times this year.
On the streets of the Iraqi capital, whose key installations could soon come under US and British bombardment, there were few visible signs of panic.
The only signals of anxiety were the long queues of cars at petrol stations.
The Iraqi dinar was more or less stable at about 1,790 to the dollar and food prices have barely changed, traders said. "Our prices have not changed and I have the same number of shoppers as every day," said Hassan Muhsein, a shopkeeper.
He was speaking on a day when President Saddam Hussein effectively put his country on a war footing to confront the threat of "foreign aggression" prompted by the crisis over UN weapons inspections.
Saddam invoked the memory of Iraq's 1991 "Mother of all Battles" against US-led forces and appointed four regional commanders to face any foreign aggression.
Saddam's move came just hours after UN arms inspectors left the country, accusing Iraq of refusing to cooperate.
A defiant statement issued after the Iraqi leader chaired a joint meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and ruling Ba'ath Party urged ordinary Iraqis to defy looming Western strikes which it said were aimed at bringing Iraq to its knees.
"We call on you Iraqis, women and men, relying on God to throw out their dreams and their failed visions, and prove... that they will fail as they have failed during the Mother of Battles," said the statement.
Ordinary Iraqis, wearied by eight years of economic sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and accustomed to repeated showdowns with the United States, said they had little to fear from the latest crisis. "We are not frightened any more," said a Baghdad trader. "Whatever happens, we are not going to lose anything." Baghdad's official radio and television played patriotic music, matching the defiant tone of the leadership. "We are ready to fight until the last breath if they will attack us," said Um (mother of) Ali, interviewed by Shabab radio run by Saddam's eldest son Uday.
Hospitals, which lack equipment and medicines, have been told to prepare extra emergency wards and draw up round-the-clock staff rosters to cope with bomb casualties.
"If anything happens, we are preparing this room with a few beds in order to be ready," said Waleed al-Janabi, a physician at a Baghdad children's hospital.
"We keep some medicine for emergency and we make staff here on call 24 hours, consisting of three doctors and three nurses," he said.
Despite the threat of civilian casualties, some Iraqis felt that a military strike would at least end the uncertainty and occasional crises Iraqis have witnessed since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War.
"If there is any American strike now, there will be an end to all what is happening to us," said Abu Ali, a grocer in Baghdad.
"Maybe the Arabs and Moslems will stand with us after seeing how much injustice we are facing," he added.
An official statement by the Iraqi government said that the four regional commands into which the country had been divided would "confront foreign aggression which targeted Iraq's sovereignty, independence and security, and preserve internal security".
Each regional commander would assume control of one or two armies, while Saddam, in his capacity as commander in chief of armed forces, would retain control of air force and air defence units, the statement said.
The four commands divided the country into northern, southern, central and "central Euphrates" districts, each assigned different armies.
Iraq's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz insisted his country had cooperated fully with the UN Special Commission (Unscom) inspectors despite what he called their "provocative actions".
He dismissed Unscom chairman Richard Butler's report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which charged Iraq with obstructing Unscom's work, as "full of lies" and said it was just a pretext for Western military action against Iraq.
Mr Butler's report was "ill-intentioned and in particular aimed to justify American and British military aggression." - Reuters in Baghdad