The Weight of a Mustard Seed

Title: The Weight of a Mustard Seed

Author: Wendell Steavenson

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 978-1-84354-305-3

Pages: 302          

A good work that narrates the ravages of Iraq first under the cruel tyrant Saddam Hussein and later serving as the battleground for rival militias to settle their internecine scores. Wendell Steavenson has worked for Time and written for a variety of publications. She lives in Paris and is the author of the acclaimed title, Stories I Stole. In an insightful illustration of Iraq’s disastrous slide towards autocracy and then anarchy, first under a tyrant who deserves no better epithet than a brutal tribal warlord and then under a foreign government which foolishly thought that their own brand of democracy could be implanted everywhere else with ease. The book recounts the life of Kamel Sachet, a General in Iraqi army, then the governor of one of its provinces, a deeply religious man who had built three mosques in Baghdad out of his own income and later a victim of Saddam’s mindless purge. The author has brilliantly caught and exhibited the spirit of an age in which Iraq declined on all parameters of civilized society.

Iraq is an unlucky nation, if I may pass a judgement. It is rich in history and heritage. The cradle of civilization was not confined to Egypt alone, it extended up to the shores of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Home to some of the world’s oldest civilizations, it led humanity on the path towards Rule of Law. Hammurabi’s Code was a pioneering effort to establish a set of rules on which a society could be governed. It offered a conceptually fresh alternative to despotism. Also, the country holds vast deposits of oil, enough to catapult the Arab nation to one of the richest ones in the world. But, just look at its present state! Contrary to its glowing heritage, it was always under oppressive dictators who ruled roughshod over the society. Having no need to keep up even a semblance of accountability to the silent public, those tyrants locked the country in ridiculous wars from which it suffered terribly. International sanctions and terrorist bombings had put a question mark on the marketability of its oil resources.

The Baath party assumed power in 1968 after several coups and struggles had thrown out its weak monarch in 1958. Saddam Hussein emerged as the strong man of Baath party and assumed presidency in 1979. In a very brief time, he cast his dark shadow of autocracy on every division of governance. Though written as a loose biography of Kamel Sachet, the book effectively portrays a cross-sectional view of Iraqi society in those troubled times. Eager for power and glory – the deadly combination which had hastened the end of many a monarch – Saddam attacked Iran, hoping to cash in on the state of confusion after the Shiite Islamic Revolution of Khomeini and the ill will it generated in the western world, owing to the infamous hostage crisis. Iraq could manage some wins in the initial stages, but a determined Iranian society fought back and inflicted heavy losses on the Iraqi side. A desperate Saddam sued for peace after eight years of futile war which went on in a bloody stalemate. The economic repercussions were immense. Saddam had prosecuted the war with handsome bailouts from Kuwait, which demanded the money back since the war was over. A slump in oil prices meant Iraq couldn’t repay. Blind with irritation at the haughtiness of a country which most Iraqis deemed to be one of their provinces, Saddam invaded in August 1990, which later proved to be his undoing. Coalition forces led by U.S. wiped them off from Kuwait and Iraq was put under crippling sanctions till 2003. Saddam’s Air force was not even allowed to fly over most of the country’s airspace. In 2003, U.S. provided the coup de grace in a ground attack which captured Baghdad. Saddam was caught hiding in an underground hole and hanged after due judicial process. Iraq slipped into civil war as warlords and militias, long held in the iron fist of Saddam stepped in to fill the vacuum.

Kamel Sachet, the General whose life story is drawn in the narrative, rose from humble backgrounds but went on to assume some of the highest positions in the Saddam regime. He was obedient to authority, loyal and deeply religious. He fought valiantly in all the Saddam wars and assumed governorship of Amara province after the Gulf War. But efficiency and loyalty were not enough to survive under Saddam Hussein. He demanded and usually obtained unflinching slavery from his followers. He would arrest some of them on quite flimsy charges, lock them up, torture them and subject them to prison sentences. At the end of the term for short sentences or in the middle of it if it was long, he would pardon them and reinstate or promote them to new positions. The officers then would remain steadfastly loyal to the dictator. Sachet also had to undergo such deprivations, but he assumed some kind of autonomy after the Kuwait debacle when Saddam’s authority was seriously challenged. Saddam had him shot at Abu Ghraib prison in 1998.

Steavenson portrays in realistic tones the state of fear and distrust which permeated Iraqi society under Saddam’s rule. Even their private talk was self-censored since the agents of the secret police were everywhere. The author has depicted a true portrait of Iraq during and after Saddam. We need not look any further to see why the toppling of Saddam failed to produce a durable government in Baghdad. The Iraqis are too divided on tribal and religious lines and propped up by a strict code of honour that demands revenge for even the slightest transgression – whether actual or perceived – that when the master who lorded over even their thoughts was gone, the numerous groups and warlords took the country in their own hands. The failure of Americans to fully grasp the basic nature of an Arab society had also helped create the mayhem.

The title of the book is truly an eye-catcher. It is inspired from a Koranic verse which describes the impartiality of verdict on the final day of judgement. Justice is said to be delivered without the bias of even the weight of a mustard seed. The author, banking on her wide ranging connections of friends and acquaintances has widely traveled in the region and conducted interviews with so many people that the book is really a true mirror of Iraq under Saddam and immediately after his end.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star