What Is The Shock Value Of Republic Of Fear By Makiya

Republic of Fear by Kanan Makiya

In ‘Republic of Fear’ by Kanan Makiya, the author’s main argument is that Iraq under the Ba’th regime was corrupt and violent. The regime used violence to legitimize their rule and the concepts of the violence came from within the party. The author also explains how Saddam Husain copied the actions of many other powerful leaders before him. The shock value of this book leaves a lasting impression on the reader, but there are some flaws in regards to how students should look at this book from a scholarly perspective, most notably the bias against the Ba’th regime.

The author argues that there is something intrinsic to Ba’th party that led to their decisions on what to do when they came into power in Iraq.

They are said not only to have accepted the regime with the violence as a part of it, but they expected to be tortured. An instance where the Iraqi people were put into their place with fear is when an economic downfall was happening in Iraq because the merchants were gaining all of the money. Instead of figuring out another way to solve the economic crisis, the regime decided to go get the top merchants from their stores and hang them on the street for everyone to see. It was incidents like this, that the author said, gave the Ba’th party their traction in Iraqi oppression. While this information provides a view of the violence inside the party, the author could have added more information on how the justice system was as a whole. The author pointed out some of the torturous ways that the Ba’th party punished the citizens, but what were some other, more modern, ways to punish for petty crimes? Additionally, the author argues that Saddam Husain was not a trailblazer of any sort instead he was an imitator. Saddam Husain saw what was going on in Europe at the time, with people being oppressed by political power and tried to make Iraq just like that. This concept was shown when Husain started making treason a large offense and intertwined it with police work. Husain purposely made treason

With the Ba’th turning these children into state obsessed machines, is it reasonable to suspect every child in these countries of being weapons when in combat? Did the way the Ba’th raised their youth make them effective fighters against other countries or did it rather put them in harms way? There are many stories of children being used as bombs in the War in Iraq. Is that war strategy that the Iraqi’s employed a result of the children being turned into state-driven