What Is Really Happening in Iraq?

What is really happening in Iraq?

The Americans and their faithful allies, the British, are committing war crimes, attacking a sovereign state outside the auspices of the UNO. Since there have been civilian casualties, these are war crimes by definition.

But aren’t they helping the people by freeing Iraq?

Freeing Iraq, under whose authority? How do you explain the fact that the Shi’ite south, which was supposed to welcome the “liberators” with open arms, has not risen up against the regime?

They’re too frightened.

That is not the impression the TV crews are getting. They started by interviewing people in ths streets, asking them what they thought of Saddam Hussein. Every one of them said “Good, Saddam Good!” or “Saddam like God” or some such. The reporters started to say that in a dictatorship everyone was forced to say that but then they stopped making the interviews because everyone was saying the same thing.

But that was in Baghdad.

No, it was in the Shi’ite south, you know, those guys who are supposed to hate Saddam. Further north the support for him is just the same.

But the Americans want to give them a democracy.

What if they don’t want a democracy based on the western model ? Look at the map, read it. How many countries in that area have western-style democracies? If there was a free election today, Saddam Hussein would be elected, if he’s alive.

If he’s alive? But I saw him on TV.

Yes, but which one? He has three doubles you see. There are rumours that he died four years ago, of cancer. One of the last shots of him was supposed to be a feeble old man with his hands shaking as he was trying to light a cigar.

They couldn’t have kept that going for four years!

Couldn’t they? Wouldn’t that just be Saddam’s last laugh?

Well the Iraqis will be better off anyway. They’re all starving.

No they aren’t. The government has been very skilful in making sure they’re properly fed despite the sanctions.

But the regime ruined Iraq.

No, it didn’t. Sanctions did. You see, the sanctions were supposed to prise Saddam Hussein from power. There has been a grand design on Iraq’s oil for a long time. The Gulf War was started as a pretext to topple Saddam Hussein from power, only he proved too powerful.

Hang on, the Gulf War was caused by Saddam invading Kuwait.

After Kuwait had been warned many times to cease its practice of cross-drilling, stealing Iraq’s oil resources. They were given a final warning before the invasion, which they refused to listen to. The result was the invasion to protect the Iraqi economy, things were not exactly as they were presented.

So it’s been the Americans all along?

Quite. First they armed Saddam Hussein to the teeth, then when he was getting too powerful, they provoked the Gulf War, then they fomented the revolt by the Shi’ites and Kurds, which didn’t work, so they had to leave them to die. The sanctions didn’t work The weapons inspections didn’t work. After the inspectors were expelled for spying, the USA ad one final attempt. Thinking the Iraqi regime wouldn’t allow the inspectors back in, they prepared a coup de teatre in the Securoty Council. The regime did allow the inspectors back in. They found nothing. Frustrated by this and dying to start the war before the weather conditions made it impossible, they had to go in, without any justification and outside international law.

So they destroy the country and then claim they’re the good guys by building it up again?

That’s right. And guess whose company gets the lion’s share of the oil contracts?

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY