When Iraq Chose to Stab Itself

On these days in the scorching month of August 1990, the Iraqi ruler lost his mind and rushed into a shocking decision to occupy a sister country, Kuwait.

The decision was not merely a political mistake; it was a crime against history and geography, and against two peoples united by Arabism, borders, and shared concerns.

It was as if Iraq, burdened by the wounds of its long war with Iran, had not been satisfied with its bleeding, but had added an unhealed wound to itself, embarking on a path toward isolation, siege, and ruin.

Since that occupation, everything began to collapse...

The world imposed a stifling blockade that turned bread into a wish and medicine into a dream.

The social fabric eroded, the economy collapsed, and the state, once described as strong and cohesive, disintegrated. Hope diminished, the light faded from mothers' eyes, and the homeland became the victim of a decision whose price was not paid in palaces, but in the homes of people experiencing poverty, children's schools, and hospital wards.

Through that door that opened at dawn on August 2, all the storms that ravaged Iraq seeped in...

From it seeped the invasion, then the occupation, then sectarianism, then destruction...

It was as if that day was the spark of the end, not the beginning of liberation, as some portrayed it.

And here we are, decades later, still paying the price of a moment of arrogance and an impulsive decision that divided what should have been united and destroyed what was built with the blood of generations.

Oh, Iraq...

How many times have your children paid the price for the mistakes of your rulers?

And how many times has your back been broken because those in the decision-making seat saw only the illusion of glory, not the truth of history?