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THIS LATEST IRAQ WAR SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE WAR TO END ALL WARS BUT IT WILL NOT BE. THE ONLY ANSWER TO THIS, IS YET TO COME. ONLY TIME CAN HELP THE MIDDLE EAST.

This Page was written in 2003 and maybe out of date. However, we feel that it is still valid. We note that the Iraqis have, not surprisingly, done the complete opposite.

Iraq,    A country in the Middle East, bordering on the Persian Gulf. The population is 90% Muslim divided evenly between Shiite and Sunnite sects. Economy:  They have heavy Oil Reserves that will take them from poverty to a standard of living they deserve. The Ba’athist party came to power in 1968 since when there has been unrest with the Kurdish minority. Ex-President: Saddam Hussein. Official language: Arabic. Official currency: Iraqi dinar of 1000 fils. Area: 438,446 sq km (169,248 sq mi). Population (1988 est): 17,064,000. Capital: Baghdad.

Iraq was once known as Babylon. Like Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar, Iraq is led by a dictator who has fought bloody wars with his neighbors. Saddam Hussein has been the sole ruler of Iraq since 1979. A year later, then began a bloody war with Iran. Iraq wanted to seize control of the oil rich land in Iran. The two sides fought for nine years, and as many as one million people died, but neither nation gained in the war.

Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq for the past two decades, has the dubious distinction of being the world's best known and most hated Arab leader.

"Words are very powerful, they can get things done for us, but then a word, and a gun makes it much easier."  

Saddam Hussein  -  1995

And in a region where despotic rule is the norm, he is more feared by his own people than any other head of state.

A former Iraqi diplomat living in exile summed up Saddam's rule in one sentence: "Saddam is a dictator who is ready to sacrifice his country, just so long as he can remain on his throne in Baghdad." Few Iraqis would disagree with this. Although none living in Iraq would dare to say so publicly.

The Iraqi people are forced to consume a daily diet of triumphalist slogans, fattened by fawning praise of the president.

By

Middle East analyst Gerald Butt

SADDAM HUSSEIN IS A CANCER THAT LIES IN THE HEARTS OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE    -  2003

Saddam Hussein

He joined the revolutionary Ba'ath party when he was a university student. He launched his political career in 1958 by assassinating a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. Saddam rose in the ranks after a Baath coup, and by 1979 he was President of Iraq. He led Iraq through a decade-long war with Iran, and in August of 1990 Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait. A U.S.-led alliance ran Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, which ended in February of 1991, with Saddam still in power.

Born:
28 April 1937 - Taurean

 Birthplace:
Tikrit District, Iraq

 Death:
Still Here

 Best Known As:
Leader of Iraq since 1979

Not because of a democratic election, Saddam Hussein is the nevertheless the Leader of Iraq. Not because he is a member of a monarchy, even. He is the head of Iraq because he is nothing short of being ruthless; an oppressor of the first order. He has assumed power with the use of the gun and has murdered over a million fellow Iraqis because they disagreed with is political view. He launched his political career in 1958 by assassinating a supporter of the Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. Saddam then rose in the ranks of the Baath Political Party (BPP), and after a successful coup by this group, in 1979 he proclaimed himself President of Iraq. No better tactics are used by the schoolyard bully. Furthermore, he is determined to stay in his exulted position by making it against the law to speak out against his regime. As this is known as slander against him and his teachings. One punishment is the removal of the dissenter's tongue, although many have been shot.

It will not come as a revelation to too many people that Iraq is not the best place for a vacation at the moment. Even with UN support now and then, the now almost constant threat of military action by the US / UK, equated with a chaotic and extreme domestic situation in Iraq, makes it one of the least popular places in the world to be at anytime. Even if you had the opportunity to go, chances are you would have trouble getting there; there are no commercial carriers running flights to Baghdad's Saddam the Great, International Airport due to UN restrictions. 

Borders with Turkey and Jordan remain open, but are well guarded and restricted. The violent internal struggle with the Iraq's Kurdish inhabitants, along with the occasional cross-border conflict between Turkey and rebel Kurds, make many peripheral areas hazardous. Allied fighter planes patrol Northern and Southern 'no-fly zones', and bomb selected military areas of the country regularly.

Grave shortage of food, essential medicine and other services throughout the nation impede the country's chance of prosperity, however, we must wonder why this country is not providing a better standard of living for its population, especially as it is so oil-rich. 

It is true that there seems to be somewhat of a fanatical hatred of Saddam Hussein by some of the West and this has brought on various sanctions and the resultant poverty. Though some would say that it is Hussein that keeps his people poor and then blames it on the West. The only TV and Radio is under political control from the Hussein regime. It broadcasts a constant stream of propaganda, telling the Iraqis how great Saddam Hussein is. But they are not convinced, the average Iraqi is not stupid and hates Hussein and all he stands for. He is know colloquially as " The Donkey"

But if it is true that he supports and sponsors terrorism against the West. 

If it is true that he is developing instruments of mass destruction.

If it is true that he has murdered many thousands of Iraqis for religious, political and racial reasons. 

If it is true that he is a dictator; a despotic leader and one who has made democracy a crime. 

If it is true that diplomacy has been totally unproductive. Then why not be very wary of what his true intentions are. 

Of course if he is none of these things, then we should leave him alone. Especially when the Iraqi people are portrayed in a manner that they adore and worship him in an almost god-like way, giving a mandate to his ever increasing bravado and criminal actions.

Is it not ironic, that as part of the civilized world we are being fed terrible and wicked propaganda by the Bush & Blair regime. 

Or is it not ironic that the Iraqis supposedly love Hussein with a passion, but the majority of Americans hate and mock Bush. And the British accuse Blair of always looking like a rabbit caught in headlights.

So understanding all this as if it was not irony, would we not all be happier living under a Hussein led regime, or one, identical to what most of the West has. 

The choice is yours. It should be then, that those Westerners, like the anti-war protestors, who do support Saddam Hussein and his administration, should lobby the appropriate houses of representation, to change the West to the same form of government as Iraq.

Democracy. A form of government in which people either rule themselves, as in ancient Athens, or elect representatives to rule, as in most modern democracies. Elections must be held regularly, be secret, and provide a choice of candidates; the elected assembly must also be free to make laws and to criticize government policy. Modern democratic ideas come from 18th-century utilitarianism. Some argue that, in a modern democracy, the country is governed by a small select group which, although voted into power, allows the voters to take little part.

Some, many, believe that the Free World Alliance should not have invaded Iraq to bring down the Husseins. We firmly believe that something should have been done, to not only rid the world of one of its dictators, but to also quash their regimes, and any echoes of it.

The problems are many why it seems to have gone wrong.

Firstly, President Bush Senior should have removed Saddam Hussein and his family when they were removed from Kuwait during the early nineties. The majority of the people in Iraq were ready for a change, but it did not come; many were left to pick up the pieces and take the punishment, for thinking that they could be free. Saddam Hussein murdered many hundreds of Iraqis, when the Alliance troops left, just because they felt brave enough to voice an opinion during the conflict. Hundreds lined up to inform on their neighbors, to curry favor so that they might survive.

Secondly, the invasions should not have been to find any Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no WMD's, as Iraq had been under strict embargoes for many years, only selling cheap oil to the USSR, and they would not trade such weaponry.

The invasions should have been about what it was; to depose Saddam and bring Democracy to Iraq, and some order. Even if people say they do not want Democracy, this is just some extension to the dictatorship. Only those in high government within a dictatorship will declare that they and their people do not want democracy.

Based on this the Alliance was correct in overthrowing the Husseins.  It is not a case of us minding our own business. A country is, at first, a piece of land. But it goes further than this, a country is a body of people who live on that land. If these people are governed by a single person or family, it no longer is a country just a nation of slaves.

So by removing Saddam Hussein, did in fact give Iraq back to the Iraqis, who are the country after all. But we in the free world should go further and challenge all dictatorships / non-democratic countries, so that eventually all citizens of the world might become equal, with equal rights.

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