The war between Babylon and Disneyland

The Sirens Of Baghdad
Yasmina Khadra
Random House
320 pages
Rs350

“What do these cowboys know about Mesopotamia? ...All they see in our country is an immense pool of petroleum...They’re bonanza seekers, looters, despoilers, mercenaries…Our streets are going to witness the greatest duel of all time…Babylon against Disneyland, the Tower of Babel against the Empire State Building…” fumes Sayed against the American intrusion in Iraq.

Sayed is at the forefront of the resistance movement against the US in Baghdad. With a shop for electronics as his front, he smuggles out bombs in television sets.

His larger goal is to infect western countries with a deadly virus. A simpleton, Sayed has simplistic solutions to a complex situation that has spiralled completely out of everybody’s control.

Dr Jalal is no simpleton. Once a stooge of the West, the learned doctor was then its favourite posterboy, ranting against the traditions, religion and customs of his own people. Reality dawned upon him only when, in typical fashion, he was discarded by George Bush and his allies. Bitter and cynical thereafter, he set about exposing the machinations of his former patrons to enthralled listeners in packed auditoriums. “They were planning their war on Iraq for years before it started. September eleventh wasn’t the trigger; it was the pretext,” he raves, as vehemently as the not so erudite Sayed.

“The idea of destroying Iraq goes back to the moment when Saddam laid the very first stone for the foundation of his nuclear site…The Pentagon’s target was…Iraqi genius…Then, to be sure their troops wouldn’t be at risk, they obliged the UN experts to do the dirty job for them. Once they were sure there were no nuclear firecrackers in Iraq, they unleashed their military might upon a nation already and deliberately beaten down by embargoes and psychological harassment.”      

Through sharply-etched, angry characters such as Sayed, Jalal and a host of others, Yasmina Khadra presents a comprehensive look at the harsh reality of Iraq today.
At a barber’s shop in the tiny hamlet of Kafr Karam, a heated debate takes place.

“They got rid of Saddam for us,” argues Issam. “(Saddam) was a monster, yes, but he was our monster. Do you prefer infidels from the other side of the world, troops sent here to roll over us?” counters Falcon, a former bandit.

“The GIs are nothing but brutes…look at what they have made of our country: Hell on earth.” It is this picture of hell on earth that The Sirens Of Baghdad captures in agonising, if sometimes repetitive detail. It could well be the picture of Afghanistan or even our Kashmir. How does the common man survive in states perpetually under siege, both from within and outside? How does he decide which side he is on when rationality has no say; when guns and vested propaganda vie for domination?

Khadra’s novel is also a chilling profile of a potential fundamentalist. How does a mere twenty-something youngster become the key tool in the hands of those out to wreak unending havoc on the world?

What is terrifying is that this youngster is so passive and unassertive that you don’t even know his name at the end of 320 pages, and yet his story  could well be the horrifying tale of countless, nameless, vulnerable others all over the world who are being manipulated to fight for causes not of their own making.