In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Great people of Iraq,

Loyal freedom fighters of our valiant armed forces,

Masses of our glorious Arab Nation,

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and all His blessings!

Every year, the eighth of August towers above us like a splendid moon in the skies of our people and our nation, or like a morning star that guides those who follow the right path in a dark night which has obscured the dawning of day. The masses of our nation await this dawn and all Arab freedom fighters seek it to model their present on it after the image of their true worth was shaken in the eyes of their enemies. These enemies fight the nation because they are covetous of its wealth and contemptuous of its potential which they imagined to be merely the potential of its rulers and nothing more.

The dawning of the eighth of August, and God's manifest victory on it come as a reward and a prize for an eight-year battle with those who wished our people ill and our nation harm, backed by international Zionism, imperialism and the wicked Jews in the occupied land and in their accursed freak entity. Today with the splendid moon of that day and its morning star there line up stars whose sublime stands express the true potential of the nation wherever chances open before it. The significance of the Day of Days is backed up by days in Palestine and Lebanon and by stands of honourable Arabs wherever the conscience of the enlightened and faithful youth of the nation is spurred on. It is spurred on towards a horizon that enlivens their spirit to express its firm stand and true level of worth. They can, thus, openly reject what should be rejected and couple aspiration with what they really want to achieve for their nation, our nation-- for its thirsty land, its withheld waters and its potency which is detained in the cells of occupation in Palestine, in the Golan Heights, in our sacred land in Saudia and in the Arab Gulf. This potency is also detained inside the cells of weakness in the minds of those who have become accustomed to abasement to the degree of addiction from among rulers and kings who have no concern but to appear on their chairs and thrones as if they really rule.

Is it not shame and disgrace on those who harbour shame and disgrace that the planes of the aggressors take off from their land and territorial waters to bomb the citadel of the Arabs and the cradle of Abraham (peace be upon him) and to destroy the property of the Iraqis and kill them all.. women, men and children? Is there any other way than this to describe treachery and disgrace?

May evil befall them, for evil indeed are the deeds they do!

It is they who have sold out their souls and have appointed (the occupying foreigner) to rule over everything that is dear and precious in the values and wealth of their people. Whatever they find saleable they have sold to the U.S and Zionism, thus becoming mere agents getting commissions deducted from the wealth of their own people and getting ignoble authority chairs to sit on.

Glorious Iraqi men and glorious Iraqi women,

You have become the yardstick of values, potency and highmindedness. You have become the guides on a path that discerning eyes cannot miss. It is a path that has become continuously trodden by those who have faith in their hearts and minds since that day of yours, the immortal Day of Days in the great record of the glorious Qadissiya, and these days, the days of the Grand Battle, the immortal Mother of All Battles and its greater record.

In this we do not explore, we only point to the meanings which the faithful will and the healthy conscience can achieve when present in the hearts and minds of the glorious men and women who have the volition after they have entrusted their souls to the Great Omnipotent.

That day of yours, Iraqi people, which we now welcome and celebrate, has become a day for all the Arabs and for all those who bear in their hearts the true meaning of humanity as opposed to what the forces of evil planned it to be. They planned it to be a pitch-black night in which bats turn into ferocious beasts to wound every virtue and to rip open the abdomen of every woman expecting a baby to be born and to speak Arabic later and to believe in what the Arabs believe in.

They wanted to twist your tongue and swerve your path. They wanted to break the flagstaff of your banner, God forbid, after they trample on everyone who has dignity and honour. But God stood by right against falsehood after the banner of right was stained with the blood of freedom fighters whether in the battlefields or in the POW camps in Iran. To those who sacrificed themselves and to their families we extend our highest appreciation and the appreciation of Iraq. This appreciation comes to you with every gentle breeze and every sublime stand of honour and dignity and every dainty and lawful morsel of food eaten by the people in peace and security.

The Highest Heaven and God's blessings to our martyrs!

Happy Paradise with our Merciful God as an everlasting dwelling for them all!

Glorious men of Iraq,

Glorious women of Iraq: mothers, sisters or any relationship you may have with those brave men who fought in the legions of right against wrong and to whose heroic deeds the battlefields bear witness from the land and waters of our beloved Basra to the Minshaf headland in our dear North, if we were to give details of your stand and the stand of your sons-- our sons and brothers and brave illustrious comrades--, the pen would not be able to give them their due. But we found it appropriate to change the style on this occasion and for this year, and to present to you the lessons deduced from honourable fighting and from honourable building which convey all the meanings of virtue and bear witness to the loyalty of the sons of our people to their fatherland. These lessons may help him who is in need of them so that the radiance of the future intensifies in his soul and the capabilities of the present consolidate in his mind. This will strengthen the stand of right against wrong in a march before which only the banner of wrong and wrongdoers will tumble down, and, God willing, the banner of right will remain fluttering high, sharing with the truthful believers all their pride.

Here is what we found to be the gist of great lessons from the experience of our people.

These lessons are addressed to you and to all the patient strivers and freedom fighters in our glorious nation:

Do not provoke a snake before you make up your mind and muster up the ability to cut its head. It will be of no use to say that you have not started the attack if it attacks you by surprise. Make the necessary preparations required in each individual case and trust in God.

Do not take him as companion who thinks that you despise him.

Do not pay those to whom you are under no obligation more than their due, for if you do so out of charity, they will fancy it to be their due. If you lower that level later on, they will regard it as a shortcoming on your part or as an unfriendly attitude. You will thus lose those to whom you have been charitable instead of winning them.

If you do not intend to go all the way, you will have to enlighten your enemy on the consequences when it is your intention to avoid a conflict with him. Perhaps he has not decided to take the conflict all the way, and his action which suggested to you that he intended a full scale conflict was nothing but stupidity on his part which veiled the possibility of his seeing the consequences. Your enlightening may stop him from going all the way. But if you decide to combat the enemy, expose his reality as an aggressor and let the big blow come from you and the decisive blow be yours.

Hasten and hurry in doing good, but tarry and take your time in doing what may cause harm to others. Do not hesitate to execute right in its field and to strike at wrong wherever it shows itself.

Do not put on an equal footing: the cowards and the braones, the loyal and those who have not settled on a clear stand, the clean and the defiled, the truthful and the liars, and do not equalize summits with mere landmarks on a level ground.

When you judge, judge with justice. Do not allow whims to burden a sentence or allow an unreformable criminal to escape punishment.

When you cannot be present in the field of work or fight for a good reason, do not let your shadow be absent from the place or your voice be unheard in it.

Draw your general plans in the light of the capability of the majority, but put them on the alert for higher deeds.

Let the elite lead them and guide them towards a perpetual ascent. Let the first man in the file see the last one and the last one see the first.

Let mercy be the crown of justice. Let resoluteness take the place of hesitation, wisdom the place of rashness, and reason the place of foolishness. Do not give your enemy any chance to get the upper hand of you.

Let not your enemy hope for your forgiveness, nor your friend be hopeless of it.

If you find that your anger may lead to a decision which you will regret taking, wait so that you take your decision in whim-free circumstances. Whims may cause your decision to deviate from its target or may close the path of mercy in your heart.

Do not put your friend and your enemy on an equal footing, even when a reconciliation with the latter takes place, lest your enemy should slight you and your friend make light of the meaning of friendship and its rights. Give each his due according to the description he deserves.

Your conscience and your mind are your sovereign-- not your tongue and your whims. Curb your tongue with your mind and let your conscience be the controller over your whims.

Seek not to wrong anyone. It is better that you let him who deserves punishment escape it and lay the blame on yourself than to wrong a human being and rebuke yourself for doing it.

Trust him who presents himself before you in adversities and does not talk about himself. But beware him who stands in the file and works only for himself.

Guard your secret carefully. Do not divulge it to anyone. Entrust what you deem to be a necessary part of it only to him whom you have already tested with a similar secret. Do not make your secret the starting point or the key to test the reticence and loyalty of people.

Do not underrate the simple person who may smear your reputation. Many are the small stone that broke huge glasses.

Keep peoples' secrets. Do not put them into other peoples' mouths, nor use a friend's secret against him.

When you take a decision, do not regret it. But when you find a mistake in it, do not hesitate to rectify it. Let not easy paths lure you when you find that the paths that cause your feet to bleed lead to the summit or to the choice without which life does not ascend to where it should ascend.

Count on the men who do not falter before difficult tasks which may seem to you at first sight to be higher than their ability. Do not count on those who select the tasks that fall below their ability.

Do not take as an introduction one attribute in the character of a person whom you depend on and overlook to test. Do not allow the branch to take the place of the trunk. Reserve for each his role on the basis of his attributes and stands.

Keep before your eyes the manner in which a person behaves in ordinary life and the manner of his behaviour under difficult circumstances, making the latter decisive in tipping the scale.

Your word is your stand. Do not humiliate it. Do not exaggerate a promise you cannot fulfil or a threat your ability cannot support.

Let generosity be your path against stinginess, frugality against prodigality, union against estrangement, forgiveness against revenge and love against hatred. If you have to choose between two contradictory paths, let a middle path be your choice as a contingency you pass through temporarily without making it a permanent law in your life and dealings.

Do not use your full military potential when you take the offensive in a conflict with an enemy unless you calculate that it will achieve a decisive result; otherwise, the result of the conflict will turn against you and your enemy will triumph over you.

Do not keep the starting point of your potential and means in a conflict with an enemy as if they were your constant image before him in later times. Constancy here is nothing but stagnation and the movement of your enemy meanwhile will give him an advantage over you. Update your means, measures and potential with everything that increases and enriches them if you want to win the conflict.

Do not measure your capability only on the basis of what you have inside you, but on that and on the degree of your influence on others too. If he who is your concern, or he who shares with you a collective act weakens, do not build your glory on his corps or on his weakness. Try to turn his weakness into strength by supporting him and protecting him from that weakness and by the encouragement, protection, enlightening and strength you grant him. Know that collective work, whenever action is based on it and whenever the situation requires it, is highest in rank and quality and it has the greatest potential. And know that the Hand of God is with the group and the hand of Satan is with those who stray from the group and with the selfish ones who do without their society.

Know that nothing is better than renewing hope in victory and that the human relationship between superior and subordinate revives optimism in the soul and gives it steadiness to continue in circumstances of war or conflict when victory is won through endurance, patience and determination.

Principles are not only life's means of advancement, they are also its crown. So, do not lower principles to the level of inferior means, and do not let them hang in the air without a cord to give them the vitality and the ability to renew themselves through their connection with life.

Do not make matter the base and resource of the spiritual and moral values in your soul. Do not let these values remain without a concrete capability to accompany and take care of them. If you were given the choice, choose that which satisfies your soul because your soul is the source of your capability.

Do not employ but a person tried in a field whose full extent you cannot explore at the starting point, and do not deprive others of their opportunity to be tried in a new situation or field.

Do not wound a friend's feeling with a piece of advice, but do not deprive him of it so that he may know his mistake.

The trodden road is not always the best road, but it is wise not to neglect it completely.

Keep your eyes on your enemy. Be ahead of him but do not let him be far behind your back.

Let your concern be with the chance you grab, not with the chance given you.

Let not your chance be at the expense of yourself and thus lose yourself. Win yourself if you are forced to lose your chance.

Real chance is the chance you take, not the one you merely imagine possible.

Ward off regret with wisdom lest regret should become a reality that burdens you.

Gluttony in food and drink is gluttony in life. Gluttons, in general, have the heart of fish. So, do not give them great authority over people. The leadership of people requires a person who has a human heart, i.e., who loves people and hates hateful acts, who can get angry and can get satisfied, who can be agitated and can be appeased, who frowns and smiles, whose moustache shudders at the sight of an inadmissible thing and blooms at what pleases the soul, who is well balanced in his view of life and his behaviour in it, and who is moderate in food and drink.

Do not give authority over public wealth to him who builds his fame on wealth, nor over the media to him who builds it on ostentation, nor over the army to him who builds it on conquest, regardless of the nature of the conquest and the degree of right or wrong in it, nor over national security systems to him who is light in weight and influence among people or to him who acts treacherously in the dark and who is not afraid God. Give each and all of these posts and titles to those who are strong, truthful and trustworthy.

People's tongue is a book written on the ground. Do not neglect reading it, but do not believe everything you read in it.

He who feels no embarrassment in praising himself before you, without first praising the good deeds of others, becomes his own depreciator. You should know this and recognize such a person.

Do not make little of a simple person who builds himself a good reputation, nor of a simple person who defames you. Know that a big fire starts with a spark and one drop of scent fills a whole court with its fragrance.

Put your foot firmly on the ground while extending your vision to the horizon. Do not deprive yourself of the connection with both earth and heaven for neither of them alone is enough as a substitute for life.

Benefit from the lessons of others before you pay their price. If you cannot do this, benefit from your own lessons lest you should be burdened with the accumulated price you pay for them and then you will get drowned. If you cannot do this either, beware of being described as stupid or foolish; otherwise misery and ruin will be your fate.

Avert evil. Do not win it on your side. Ward it off by fair means whenever possible without paying any price to its source. But be on your guard against it. If evil attacks you, do not bend before it but face it with all that it requires to face it. Expel the devil of weakness from your soul because God loves the brave and Satan fears them. Evil is the devil of the foolish and the arrogant. Weakness has another devil. Expel all devils from your soul with active and faithful potency, and from the battlefield with the same potency. Break their codes on the anvil of your strength, after trusting in God.

Do not make your past all that you rely on as a source of your capability and effect of your action. By doing this, you have merely leaned on it. Make the past the root of your capability and action but be vigorous and effective in the heart of the present while extending your vision and the ambition of your thought to the future as a whole.

Beware of yourself before you beware of your enemy. Pay attention to your friend before you pay attention to your adversary.

The foundation of the true and noble nature of men is that they disdain to commit any failing. Do not entrust a mission of good will to anyone who is not ashamed of a failing, but have him argue with your opponents and enemies only.

Do not do all that you are capable of doing, but only that which is regarded to be right and legitimate in the light of the principles you believe in, after trusting in God.

Do not demand what is not your due, but do not waive what is your due unless you relinquish it to someone who deserves it more than you do. Balance rights against duties or obligations for he who seeks rights without fulfilling duties and obligations is a parasite, and he who fulfils duties or obligations without rights may put himself in the position of the exploited weak. Neither is an attribute of a true and faithful Iraqi and Arab person.

If you want to minimize your wrongdoing and maximize your justice, remember that Satan tempts weak hearts and nests in chests empty of faith. Put yourself in the place of your opponent or adversary to learn whether right is on your side or on his side.

Always remember that you may regret an action or a word that are immaturely or inaccurately directed towards a person. But you will never regret patience, no matter how long it lasts if it has as foundation the planning of an action that requires patience.

Do not select for posts of leadership those who claim higher roles for themselves in success or victory and disclaim their responsibility for failure or defeat.

Select for positions of supreme titles those who have prepared themselves to be better equipped for the task of serving the cause of the people and the nation, but not those who look at the post as the means of their chance to rise at the expense and interests of the people and the nation.

Young people,

If you are outrun by those who surpass you in material things and appearances, do not follow them. Choose your own honourable path if the path of those who outran you is not honourable. Outrun them towards what is spiritual and moral through culture, steadfast stands, educational attainment and honourable and legitimate work. Your clinging to these principles will be deeper in effect, firmer in stand and higher in position. Everything else is transient.

Great people of Iraq,

Faithful men of our valiant armed forces,

Men and women comrades,

Bearers of the trust of the great Ba'ath principles and banner,

This has been part of what we found it appropriate to refer to on the occasion of your manifest victory on 8-8-1988. These lessons have been inspired by your march, a march that is proud of its faith and proud of you. It is proud of you because you are the faithful and truthful custodians of friendship, sincere affection and every virtue and value that rise above any weakness and frailty. They are the fruit of your great endeavour and struggle in the fields of work, construction and defence of right against wrong for more than thirty years. They have undergone fermentation in the heart and mind of the writer before he committed them to paper to be broadcast to you in this address on the occasion of the Glorious Day of Days.

Extended to you are the sincerest gratitude for your sublime character and the noblest, God-loved pride in your nobility of descent and in your great stands.

From us and from you, the affection of one passionately in love is given to our glorious Arab nation, the nation of prophets, and to every Arab man and woman who are truthful in intention, stand and call.

Long live Iraq!

Long live Iraq!

Long live our glorious nation and its eternal message!

Long live the people!

Long live the army!

Long live the comrades!

Long live Palestine, free and Arab!

Down with Zionism!

Down with the Jews of the occupied land!

May evil befall every traitor, hireling and cheat!

God is Great!

The Highest Heaven for the martyrs!

Glory to the martyrs!

God is Great!

God is Great!

Let the debased be despised!