West Bloomfield, Mich. — There is nothing terribly miraculous about precision bombs or Warthog helicopters or Bradley fighting vehicles, but for Iraqis, they will serve the purpose that a river of blood and infestations of locusts and frogs did for the Israelites in Egypt. The force of arms has set Iraqis free just as the plagues did for the Hebrews about 3,500 years ago.
And now comes the hard part, the building of a renewed nation in which citizens must take responsibility for their own lives and conduct. The tyrant who has terrorized 25 million of his citizens for two decades is gone, and the people will have to choose their own course.
We should be thinking about the Iraqis this Passover as we and our children remember the astonishing story of Moses and how, with God’s force, he led the children of Israel out of their 400 years of enslavement. We must understand that the lessons of the Exodus are just as relevant now as they were when Pharaoh ruled Egypt.
It is almost impossible for most Jews in America to understand what it would be like to live without liberty. Holocaust survivors understand it, of course, but they are a shrinking fraction of the 5.2 million Jews in this country. Happily for the rest of us, we must rely on imagination and on the story that Passover teaches.
We might think about how fearful we might be if we lived in a country where a secret police arrested citizens on suspicion of political opposition and sent them to what became known as Chop-Chop Square, the Baghdad plaza where Saddam Hussein regularly had his political opponents beheaded.
We may be surprised that the people of Basra or Najaf or Al Kut are not always cheering the U.S. and British forces, but we need to remember the terror under which they have lived and how it has sapped their confidence.
In turn, thinking about the psychology of oppression in Iraq may give us new understanding of why Moses needed to keep the nation of Israel wandering in the desert for long enough to rid itself of the slave mentality. And recalling how some Israelites urged a return to Pharaoh’s rule should keep us from expecting a sudden flourishing of a western-style democracy along the Tigris and the Euphrates.
We need to remember how terrifying the unknowns of liberty will seem to the majority of Iraqis who have been raised in a ceaseless flood of propaganda about the benevolence of Hussein and the evil of the West. Like the sons of Samuel, they may seek to have a king appointed over them because it seems less scary than self-rule.
If we are lucky and skillful, this war could encourage the rogue Arab nations to rethink their philosophies and practices. But it should also renew for us, the most fortunate generation of Jews since David built the shining city of Jerusalem, a dedication to freedom of thought and action in America and in the world.
Human nature does not change. Tyrants will forever try to enslave and oppress; a watchful people and a merciful God are the only effective defense against the bondage of the despots. Is tonight (this year) going to be different from all other nights (years)? The answer in Baghdad will be, at least, a temporary “Yes.”
For the rest of us, it will be “yes” if we strive to make it so.
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