Discussion: Is the entire Iraqi army from the Ba'ath Party?

The Shaykh : The second step, which is the middle one: Is every individual in the Iraqi army a Ba'athist? The answer is, say it and do not be afraid, just as I said at the beginning.
The student : No, it is ninety-nine percent.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : Ninety-nine percent are Ba'athists.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah.
The student : Yes, and the one percent are not Ba'athists. This is the reality.

The Shaykh : No, allow me. This requires discussion. How large is the Iraqi army in your claim, or in your lowest estimate? Throw out a light word, meaning approximately, the minimum, meaning the minimum.
The student : One million.

The Shaykh : One million. Who conducted the census from the first person to the last number that completes the million?
The student : We did not say one hundred percent; we said ninety-nine percent.

The Shaykh : Allow me, allow me. The same answer. May Allah reward you. Who conducted this precise census that justified you saying, as you said just now?
The student : There are organized statistics in every camp, in every office, and in every division.

The Shaykh : O Shaykh, may Allah guide you.
The student : Yes, that is what exists.

The Shaykh : Do not rush. What is the existing census? That every what did you say? A battalion and every what?
The student : A division.

The Shaykh : A division, and so on. Is there a census that so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so are party Ba'athists, except so-and-so who is not a party member?
The student : Yes, that is how it is with us in Iraq. We all served in the army, almost all of us, and my uncle was one of the instructors in the camp.

The Shaykh : I am saying that this instructor does not know what you are saying. Let him answer me.
The student : O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : This, O Shaykh, cannot be known.
The student : This cannot be known if it is secret. But if we are living here now, we know who is Jordanian, who is Iraqi, and who is Syrian, and so on.

The Shaykh : My brother, this is ten, twenty, one hundred, two hundred.
The student : If you have papers and statistics, you can know. Well, I am in a camp, living in a battalion... In the morning, who is a Ba'athist comes out on one page, and who is not a Ba'athist comes out like this. They divide us. Why did you not join the Ba'ath Party? For reasons. Well, you come, and you, like this.
Another student: These are the daily divisions. And every week we have a division, and every month we have a division. In fact, the Republican Guard does not accept anyone unless he is a Ba'athist.

The Shaykh : Iraq.
The student : Fifteen to twenty.

The Shaykh : How?
The student : Fifteen to twenty.

The Shaykh : Sixteen.
The student : Fifteen to twenty.

The Shaykh : Fifteen to twenty. Well, and the division has another division.
The student : Yes, it has many divisions.

The Shaykh : What are these divisions?
The student : Brigades and battalions.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : Brigades and battalions.

The Shaykh : Brigades and battalions. Give me the smallest division.
The student : A company.

The Shaykh : A company. How many is its number?
The student : By Allah, this company depends on the platoon.

The Shaykh : A platoon. How many is its number?
The student : The number is at most one hundred if it is infantry.

The Shaykh : One hundred.
The student : If it is infantry.

The Shaykh : And if they are, for example, pilots.
The student : If it is not infantry, the platoon does not exceed ten.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah. These proportions are difficult for an ordinary person who is not the owner of the entire government and all the books in these divisions.
The student : Because we have been in an organized war for ten years. One of us moves from camp to camp to camp to camp. He can keep things in order, especially if he places, meaning, in front of him daily. You have an inspection on two days, and you have organized and unorganized, and a meeting on the hour such-and-such of the day such-and-such of the week. How can this not be kept in order?

The Shaykh : I think we are drifting apart from each other. It reminds me of what someone said: "I traveled east and you traveled west *** How great is the difference between the east and the west." Do you want to prolong this with me?
The student : No, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Now, have you entered every battalion? Tell me no.
The student : I, of course.

The Shaykh : Tell me no.
The student: No.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is it, my brother. The example is clear. Tell me no. Well, what did you call the one whose number is at least?
The student : A platoon.
Another student: A company.

The Shaykh : A company. Well done. Have you entered every company?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : All the more so.
The student : Yes, we entered many, but not all of them.

The Shaykh : My brother, are we not asking you now about many or few? That is it. Well, did you encompass the specialized books of every company? Tell me.
The student : Yes, no.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. These are logical, rational matters, like the sun in the fourth hour of the day, like this light you see in this night. So, who came to these companies and looked into the details of their members? For every company, for example, has, according to the proportion you said just now.
The student : One hundred.

The Shaykh : No, every company, what you are saying, how many is its number? Twenty.
The student : One hundred.

The Shaykh : One hundred.
The student : The detail is ten.

The Shaykh : No, the company is one hundred.
The student : One hundred.

The Shaykh : The company is one hundred. How many should its number be? Ninety-nine.
The student : Yes, you may.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : Yes, you may.

The Shaykh : Yes, you may.
The student : It is possible that some, it is possible that in some, closed, closed.

The Shaykh : Look, now we have refuted his entire claim.
The student : No, how is that? I am just the total, O Shaykh, the total.

The Shaykh: No.
The student : We may leave this matter.

The Shaykh : Excuse me, excuse me. May Allah reward you. I want to understand, my brother. What does your saying "closed" mean?
The student : It means, in the sense that this division or this one does not accept anyone but a Ba'athist before he enters it. Well, the officers.

The Shaykh : No problem, no problem. We do not want to stop there, we do not want to stop there. These closed companies, in your expression, do they constitute the larger part of the companies or the smaller? Say the smaller.
The student : Why?

The Shaykh : Say the larger.
The student : Well, the larger. What is the reality? I am on the ground, what I have seen.

The Shaykh : Well, may Allah reward you. Your reality. Glory be to Allah. People think that judging by the truth is easy.
The student : No, by Allah.

The Shaykh : How many companies do you think are in the Iraqi army?
The student: Many.

The Shaykh : Many. I know. Tell me, for example, a thousand. Tell me five hundred. When you say you do not know.
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : Allow me, everyone. When you say you do not know, this is equal to saying such-and-such percent are Ba'athists. You do not know. If you do not know the number of companies, it results that you do not know how many Ba'athists there are.
The student : The important thing, O Shaykh, is this discussion.

The Shaykh : The important thing, no problem, no problem. No, my brother, I love for our brothers to be precise in their speech.
The student: Yes, may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : So I say, for example, how many fig trees are here? You do not know. Well, how many fruits are in the single tree? You do not know. But you translate, you guess without knowledge, and you say I estimate there is a million in it.
The student : It is not you who live here who do not know.

The Shaykh : No, it is a fig tree, that is its name.
The student : What is this?

The Shaykh : It is a fig tree, and I do not know. Now I am telling you, I will bring you an example, and I have no concern for this example.