President Saddam Hussein' speech on Army Day

Baghdad, 6 January 2003

Our great people

The valiant men of our Armed forces

On previous occasions, we have said that our view of our history in Iraq, which is also our view of our history as a nation, is that it is tantamount to faith. This is because history, to our nation and people, is not merely a register of contextual activities. It is rather a record of sacrifices made in blood in order for the nation to preserve its qualities and maintain its role, and in order for our people as well to remain as such. What raises history and elevates it to the status of belief is the fact that the sacred blood shed in the most crucial situations for our nation to assert its traits, and its mission to augment its everlasting contribution to humanity, has been the blood of the Mujahideen who loved Allah and would therefore not hesitate to carry out, their missions as designated by Allah, the Almighty, along with the honour they had in carrying the Call of the Message of Heaven to mankind as a whole, after spreading it in their own great nation.

This is how the faithful people of our nation view history, and this is how we have read our history and believed in its meanings, and have hence stressed that our history is not merely a series of events, as in the case in the history of a lot of activities and situations in life for other nations and peoples. History is rather the reservoir in which exist, and from whose depth we derive, the laws that elevate the nation to assume its great mission for humanity, having attained the sublime status of communication with Allah, as a nation of loving, chosen believers, who are confident and obedient to the commands of the Almighty; a nation conscious of its great mission of faith both nationally and on the level of humanity, which is extended from the essence of the tenets established throughout its eternal history and the wealth of values adorning the landmarks of distinction along its mission.

After an absence from the fields, arenas and objectives of the Almighty, when He Has Willed it to be extended, your role returns again to you, Iraqi men and women of valour and sacrifice, the heroes of our valiant armed forces under all your titles your role is regained, now that you have snatched the opportunity to re-assume it deservedly with your special traits which emanate from your great faith in all that brings satisfaction to Allah and gratification to the homeland and the nation. On the arenas of this role of yours and its eternal mission, you have presented scores of martyrs, which keeps your picture bright and unblemished, as you have evinced no reluctance whatsoever in taking the stand of faith and dignity with which you have responded to the call of history, blessed with the spirit and fragrance of Heaven.

History, which you have treated as a glorious faith, returns now carrying all the values and requirements of faith and generous sacrifice in order to strengthen its principles and the edifice of your glorious community on the basis of those principles.

History is the doctrine of the present that is linked to the spirit and values of the glorious past. Its spirit and high effect exist in you, valiant men and women. Hence our celebration of the 6th of January every year, as a historic mission of the struggle and Jihad of our heroic armed forces and faithful people, on the basis of the same values already referred to, now that you have reaffirmed these meanings through your faith and stands, through the blood shed by those martyred or wounded amongst us, and through the suffering and resilience of our prisoners of war. So this has become a day for us to recall all these meanings as we celebrate and honour the day every year. The celebration is unlike any other, because this one of honour and renewal of our pledge to the Almighty before ourselves, our people and armed forces, and our nation and humanity, as a people and army of Mujahideen, men and women who have established the foundation for this faith in the depth of our blood and suffering, and in our treatment of the spirit of history, whereby we recall history in our sacrifices and our readiness as followers of a rich and glorious Faith at present and in the future as well.

On this basis, Great people and Army of valiant Mujahideen, when we celebrate and honour the 6th of January, we take another look at, and ponder, in a spirit both pure and full of faith, unstained by treason to the principles or abandonment of the pledge we made to Allah, the nation and humanity, not only the difficulties which we have been through or which have been imposed on us, difficulties through the claws of which we have derived all that would bring dignity and pride to our nation, but also the role and stand awaiting us. This will ensure our continued adherence to the great values and mission entrusted to our nation and people on the basis of our history, rather than make our celebration of the day isolated occasion. It is indeed the basic situation. It is the road and agenda with all that is linked to it of our recent past during thirty years of glorious history and the extensions made to, or from, it. This is going to be the doctrine of faith for our coming generations, our children and grandchildren in Iraq, in the same way as it is the doctrine of the present. It is a source of pride for the Mujahideen and freedom-fighters of our nation. It is their reservoir of experience and values, together with what is derived from the struggle of our brothers in Palestine and in all other arenas and situations of honour for the people of our nation .To them, it is an example to follow and emulate, once they recall it along with the depth of the nations history and glorious faith .It will be a torch of light linked to that ancient history of the nation, the voice of a strong lesson in the nation, scented by the blood of sacrifice,in order that our posterity will remain on the right path,son after father,regardless of the size and value of the sacrifices made, until victory is achieved over the forces of evil and injustice which mean our nation ill ;infringe upon its rights and harbour greedy intentions against it.

When you, the valiant people of Iraq, renew your pledge to Allah,to yourselves,to the nation and to humanity at large,that you will continue the march of jihad,you do not only strengthen your adherence to your belief and your sacrifices for the Faith, whose meanings have been eloquently expressed, in your sacred blood, as well as in your suffering, sacrifice and perseverance, but you also ensure final victory over the enemies of Allah, your enemies .Allah loves those who rely on Him and who remain strong and honest believers. Allah does not like weaklings.If Allah blesses you with His satisfaction, for victory comes only from Him, the Almighty, Yours will be an assured triumph at the outset, and in the end when the defeat of your enemies will bring them contempt ; for they have done themselves, as well as others, wrong through misjudgment and misconduct when they deviated from all honourable values on the basis of which fair-minded people come together to achieve understanding and cooperation.

But if the aggressors choose a way other than this, then, after thanking Allah, we shall all be even happier than the others. Indeed, we shall thank the Almighty if He guides the enemies to the right path, in the same way as we shall be grateful when He destroys them and brings shame to their arrogance.

Oh, Allah, pray guide the along the road of righteousness if You so decide. Otherwise, smite them with Your wrath and smash them with Your destruction blow, for they are a group of criminals

If anyone attempts to intimidate you, the people of Iraq, repel him and tell him that he is a small midget while we belong to a nation of glorious Faith, a great nation and an ancient people who have, through their civilization, taught the human race as a whole what man was yet to know.

We are the offsprings of the sword and the pen; and, in the Name of Allah, we shall fear no one in defending our right, and shall continue our march on the path drawn by Allah, in order to achieve the tasks assigned to us by the Almighty.

Our right is a clear right, as clear as is their falsehood; and we shall not be intimidated by their falsehood. Allah shall drown them in shame.

Allah is our God, and He is the Greatest. Theirs is an abject shame, while ours is an elevated status with values that will ensure Allahs content and the appreciation of free-minded humanity.

He, whose hoisted banner is adorned with the call: Allah is the Greatest, fluttering on its post, and who keeps his pledge to Allah, to the martyrs and to the faithful, shall fear no tyrants. Our chests are filled with the great conviction in our victory, whose fruit will be in our hands and whose banners will be all over our heads as a great people in a glorious nation, God willing.

Shame, and more shame, with defeat will go to your opponent.

And may every new year bring happiness and well-being.

We salute the Palestinian people of heroic mujahideen as well as every hero and heroine amongst the champions of self-sacrifice who confront the zionest aggression with their lives and thus foil the wrong ideas of the American administrations which have acted in alliance with their artificial zionist creation in the crimes they perpetrate and the shame they reap .

Glorious and sublime are our martyrs in Palestine, Iraq and the nation as a whole.

Long live Palestine, free and Arab, from the sea to the river.

Long live Great Iraq and its valiant army of Mujahideen.

Long live our glorious Arab nation.

Greetings to every valiant hero and noble heroine in our nation as they repel and resist injustice.

Courageous Men and Women of our great people, and our valiant Armed forces,

We know you and trust the pledge that you have taken upon yourselves on several occasions .We are confident,as we rely on Him, the Great, Keeper of all Power,the Merciful,the Compassionate,that you will be with every new dawn for a new day,better and better until you attain the best state,with Allah Grace,to the disappointment of your desperate enemies,the friend and wicked assistants of Satan,the inhabitants of night and the dark.

The moon, the stars and the sun will,with Allahs Grace expose all the schemes that they hide in the darkness of their minds and chests .Their arrows will go astray,while your arrows will hit them,now that Allah has deemed your struggle to be a driving force in the march of every mujahid and freedom-fighter in your nation and in the peoples of the world at large against injustice and its perpetrators spearhead by their master: Their Tyrant.

Be aware, then Brothers, that victory is yours now, in the past and on the Day of final harvesting, in spite of all the hysterical hubbub and clamour which the enemy has been making; for the enemy has many objectives behind this uproar and self-defeating pandemonium .Iraq is not the only target in this confusion,even if the noise is meant to intimidate us and to cover the aggression to be decided by the enemy whenever the devil so instructs him. The objective is rather to subject the Arab Gulf area to a full,complete and physical occupation through which to achieve many goals .These include political interference and military intervention in the countries of the region in a manner unaccustomed before, with a view to securing complete control over their resources. The fragmentation of some of these countries, which has been a dream declared by the enemy since the early 1970s, and about which various enemy scenarios have been published, may have gone some way towards being achieved now, including the occupation of land, at the lowest cost possible. But the enemy will pay dearly later, on top of what it is paying at present for its reckless policies of greed and expansionism. Through its noise and rumblings, coupled with the ongoing aggression and blockade inflicted on Iraq, the enemy is providing cover for the heinous crimes perpetrated by the zionist entity against our people in Palestine.

In this respect, the enemy has achieved a lot of the objectives desired by zionism; for now public opinion is diverted completely towards the enemys noise and mobilization against Iraq and the confusion it has created about the Gulf, leaving very little room for the zionist aggression to be attended to, condemned and confronted.

The enemy is preparing now to control entry to the Red Sea and the gate-ways to the Arab Sea, with a view to ensuring enemy interests and security for the zionist entity, while securing transport lines for oil and military shipments there. The enemy is in full coordination with the zionist entity in this respect, and has achieved a lot of what it wanted to see achieved in order to cover the weaknesses of its agencies,as exposed before the US public opinion, vis-a-vis the events of the 11th of September 2001 and the weakness, or indeed near-collapse, of the United States economy. The enemy has been trying to divert the American peoples attention from these facts,the details of which are being sought by many conscientious people there. This includes the failure of the policy of the United States towards the Palestinian question and the rights of the people of Palestine, the failure of US policies in the world in general, with anger and hatred being generated amongst peoples everywhere against those policies, as well as the failure of the US military policy in Afghanistan in the face of local resistance there. One of the objectives of the enemys continued aggression and pressure on Iraq is to provide psychological support, in a climate of sabre-rattling, in order to intimidate the people of the Middle East and the world, and to make the inspection teams go beyond the declared objectives of the Security Council, even in the bad resolution issued in its name. So, now, instead of looking for the so-called weapons of mass destruction, in order to expose the distortion and lies propagated by those who endeavour, in vain, to deceive public opinion, the inspection teams are interested in collecting names and making lists of Iraqi scientists, addressing employees with questions that carry hidden agendas, giving special attention to military camps, to unproscribed military production, and to other matters, all or most of which constitute purely intelligence work.

The covers used to camouflage the subjects which we have mentioned, or say the largest part of them, are required for those subjects, which also need the sound of weapons and the perpetuation of crises in the Arab homeland and its periphery. In the meantime, the enemys occupation of the Gulf and the Red Sea will have been established, which will enable the enemy whose lines of communication and transport will now have become shorter, to launch aggression and cause damage in any direction it chooses, including expanding its aggression against Iraq on the basis of strategic and tactical objectives. Nothing will therefore be more disappointing and discouraging to the enemy than for our people to be prepared, after relying on Allah, for any further confrontation expected with the enemy in addition to the aggression already perpetrated on a daily basis, while maintaining our life for the present and the future, building, building and building with great optimism and conviction that the future is secured by firm adherence to Faith. The light of truth belongs to us, while our enemy has the darkness of the present and the darkness of distant horizons. We are fully prepared for everything and for any eventuality. Our success is in the hands of Allah, and Allah shall repel the schemes of the infidels.

In any case, we are in our country; and whoever is in his own homeland with truth on his side, and is force to face an enemy that stands on the side of falsehood and comes as an aggressor from beyond seas and oceans, will no doubt emerge triumphant, because victory always belongs to those who stand by truth in their own home while defeat certainly belongs to their enemies.

On this basis, and not under any other consideration, we conduct ourselves as we watched the hissing of the snakes and the barking dogs together with the aggression being continually inflicted on the north and south of our country. Our behavior reflects the confidence of capability which requires no hasty or perturbed behavior, but is based on the necessary calculation and consideration of which we have accumulated such experience as would make every Iraqi man and woman,

everyone in our people and every soldier in our armed forces, as well as every official and community leader, well-aware of his or her task and indeed his or her position in the battle of reconstruction and the arena of confrontation, if the devil pushes those who ignite it to a precipice.

On the basis of this experience and the preparedness that rests on a solid and unshakable base of faith and conviction, it is the enemy that is confused, and it is the enemy that should seek a way out of what is regarded a mess in which the enemy has thrown itself. The enemy ought to remember the terrible end of all empires that committed aggression against our people and nation in the past.

As for the people of Iraq, their victory, with reliance on Allah, is at hand, having already existed in their chests; and it is up to the enemies to trace the echoes of their trumpets.

Allah is the Greatest

And the wretched aggressors shall be repelled.