Hayder Al-Khoei's tribute to his Father

via Eye Raki.

A tribute to his Father Abdul Majid al-Khoei

Shortly after my father announced he would be leaving us to go to Iraq I used to have constant arguments with him. Over lunch, over dinner, and every time he used to come back from work, I used to always bring up the subject of war and the destruction it will inevitably cause. Not once did my father lose his temper with me even after I would say things like "but don't you care that many thousands are going to die in this war?".

He was a 41 year-old who had lost his brothers and many friends to the tyranny of Saddam and realised the only way of getting rid of the monster was through the US-led invasion. I was a 15 year-old who knew nothing. Even when he was explaining to us the brutal torture and execution methods the Ba'athists would use against political dissenters there would be something in the back of my head telling me 'but he's just saying that because he's in exile'. It wasn't that I thought he wasn't telling the truth, per se, but maybe he hadn't seen what he was telling us and simply heard it from other people.

Over lunch one day I told him I would be attending the anti-War march to protest against Britain's role in the invasion of my homeland. It had always been a sensitive topic for him and I knew he had been meeting the Prime Minister and other government officials making the case for war and so I decided to make sure he was in a good mood. Over lunch he would always serve us the food and be the last to eat so I waited until it was my turn and as soon as I handed over the plate to him I just said it.

I half expected him to drop my plate and shout at me for the embarrassment it would cause him if someone found out a leading member of the Iraqi opposition who was pushing the case for war had a son who was marching through the streets of London protesting against his own father. But he didn't shout at me and he didn't even raise his voice. He looked straight at me bewildered and then said in a very cold voice "you can go if you want, but you don't even know the meaning of Saddam Hussein". After a brief history on Saddam he lost his appetite and the rest of us ate in complete silence and it was only after he was killed I truly understood what his words meant. It was only after the mass graves were being discovered on a daily basis that I truly believed the extent of the terror that was Saddam Hussein. It was only after I saw with my own eyes the videos and pictures of torture and execution that I realised this war was a just war. It was only after my father died that I believed him.