The trials of occupation
Executing Saddam will not bring peace to Iraq. That can only come when US forces leave
Burhan al-Chalabi Thursday December 28, 2006 The Guardian
The imminent execution of Saddam Hussein is nothing but a smokescreen - a diversion in a series of diversions that will do nothing to address the price of the occupation of Iraq. If the Bush administration truly wanted to curb the cycle of bloodshed, it would come clean and share with the US public, the Iraqi people, and the international community the real goals of this disastrous neoconservative adventure.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq was an act of US imperialism, marketed as a war of liberation. Iraq was chosen ahead of Iran or Syria because it had been weakened by 13 years of sanctions. It provided the opportunity to station US bases in the Middle East, and a vantage point to monitor Iran. Control of the massive oil reserves was not to be sniffed at, either. It was assumed that Iraqis’ distaste for Saddam would somehow make occupation acceptable.
It has, of course, proved to be anything but acceptable. It has proven unacceptable to the people of Iraq, the Middle East, and the world over. Today, a country is occupied and its sovereignty violated. The UN’s legal and moral authority has been undermined. Iraq’s cultural heritage is in tatters, its natural resources squandered, its infrastructure destroyed.