Pre-2003 Iraq
Here's an interesting take on the Iraq war from a British-Iraqi, Hayder-al-Khoei, writing in The Guardian newspaper.
I was struck by the following sentence which is in stark contrast to the certainties of many of our home grown commentators and political activists:
"Here in Britain, there seems to be nostalgia for pre-2003 Iraq. People either do not know or have too quickly forgotten the horrors of the Ba’athist regime."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/06/iraq-war-saddam-monster-chaos-britain-chilcot-report
Iraq was destined for chaos – with or without Britain’s intervention
By Hayder al-Khoei - The Guardian
Saddam was a monster whom Iraqis were glad to be rid of. But the Chilcot report shows that the UK still overestimates its influence in the world
As a British-Iraqi, I look forward to reading more of the Chilcot report to learn about why my country invaded my country. As a Brit, I can understand the frustration with a government that launched a war based on “facts” that turned out to be no such thing. However, as an Iraqi, I think much of this debate is irrelevant.
For Iraqis, there is no debate to be had over WMDs. Iraqis know very well how WMDs work because they have been on the receiving end of them. It is not merely a political, legal or academic discussion but rather a brutal reality they faced. Also, whether or not Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs in his possession by 2003 is irrelevant because, for most Iraqis, Saddam was the WMD.
There is a lot of anger about the postwar descent into chaos, but much of that anger in Iraq is being directed towards the corrupt Iraqi political class who killed our dreams and aspirations, not the clueless, sometimes well-intentioned, foreign invaders. Here in Britain, there seems to be nostalgia for pre-2003 Iraq. People either do not know or have too quickly forgotten the horrors of the Ba’athist regime.
Saddam’s endless wars with Iraq’s neighbours and his genocidal campaigns against his own people are bizarrely seen by many in the west as part of an era of “stability” and “security” for Iraqis. Stability imposed with chemical weapons and security achieved with mass graves. We would need to stretch the definition of those words beyond reason and meaning before we could ever apply them to pre-2003 Iraq.
Saddam was a monster whom Iraqis were glad to be rid of. But the Chilcot report shows that the UK still overestimates its influence in the world
As a British-Iraqi, I look forward to reading more of the Chilcot report to learn about why my country invaded my country. As a Brit, I can understand the frustration with a government that launched a war based on “facts” that turned out to be no such thing. However, as an Iraqi, I think much of this debate is irrelevant.
For Iraqis, there is no debate to be had over WMDs. Iraqis know very well how WMDs work because they have been on the receiving end of them. It is not merely a political, legal or academic discussion but rather a brutal reality they faced. Also, whether or not Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs in his possession by 2003 is irrelevant because, for most Iraqis, Saddam was the WMD.
There is a lot of anger about the postwar descent into chaos, but much of that anger in Iraq is being directed towards the corrupt Iraqi political class who killed our dreams and aspirations, not the clueless, sometimes well-intentioned, foreign invaders. Here in Britain, there seems to be nostalgia for pre-2003 Iraq. People either do not know or have too quickly forgotten the horrors of the Ba’athist regime.
Saddam’s endless wars with Iraq’s neighbours and his genocidal campaigns against his own people are bizarrely seen by many in the west as part of an era of “stability” and “security” for Iraqis. Stability imposed with chemical weapons and security achieved with mass graves. We would need to stretch the definition of those words beyond reason and meaning before we could ever apply them to pre-2003 Iraq.
