Freedom in the balance

"Osama"

"We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology. Abu Musab Zarqawi

If you couldn't stomach viewing the video of the beheading of Nick Berg, another, yet only a little less compelling, way to understand what is at stake today in Iraq is to view the film Osama, by Siddiq Barmak. Osama is not about Osama Bin Laden, at least not directly, but about the travails of a twelve year old Afghanistan girl living under the Taliban nightmare. Filmed in Afghanistan after the forced retreat of the Taliban following the American invasion, the film chronicles the story of a young girl forced to disguise herself as a boy in order to work and help support her widowed mother.

Though utterly absent of gratuitous sex and gore, the film is nonetheless shocking and difficult to watch - so skilled is Barmak at revealing the subhuman cruelty of the Islamicists and the fear in those who suffered under it. The film begins with a crowd of burkha clad women scrambling in terror as the Taliban begin to herd them into cages, among them a prepubescent girl, frightened, innocent, and vulnerable. There is no happy ending for little Osama. She is forced to join a Madraseh with other young boys where her identity is finally discovered. She is then tortured, taken from her mother and forced into sexual slavery (marriage) to an aged Mullah. Asked at the Cannes film festival if the story was contrived, Barmak responded, "No, this was reality" under the Taliban. No longer. Nearly twenty million people, countless young Osama's, have been freed from tyranny.

I was against the United States launching a pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein. I did not believe the American people would wholeheartedly support it absent some direct provocation. My misgivings, however, were not based on moral concerns with toppling Hussein. Far from it. Indeed, nothing could be nobler than offering freedom to millions so long in political bondage. I have never believed or seen evidence to support the notion that this war was motivated by oil. Of course the United States has self preservation in mind, but for those that believe that oil was the goal, I'm afraid that only time, not reason, will prove them wrong.

But now that the Iraqi's have been freed from political bondage a greater terror threatens them, Islamic fascism. There is no other way to put it. For if Abu Musab Zarqawi were to prevail in that tortured land there is no telling of the horrors that await the innocent. This is a result the world, with America in the vanguard if need be, must not and cannot allow. Too many young Osamas are standing at the threshold. Democracy, as those who live under it know all too well, is not without its problems. Yet for all its flaws it has produced the freest and most prosperous people in all of human history. Evil hearts accustomed to having their way over the powerless will resist it until the end. Democracy is made only for freedom loving people willing to impose self restraint. Zarqawi will never accept this. But he and the insurgency do not represent most Iraqi's. They have never known democracy so it will take time to inculcate. A culture of freedom is fragile and must be nurtured. But for the majority there, do they not at least deserve the chance to breath the fresh air of political and religious freedom.

Rent the video Osama; and as you watch it think about the election this coming Sunday and what's at stake in Iraq.