by James Glaser
May 8, 2003

Sure we killed thousands of Iraqi citizens. And yes, it is true that we maimed thousands more. No one knows how many Iraqi soldiers we killed and wounded. Also whole sections of many cities in Iraq have been destroyed and the looting has been just terrible. Every child in the country had to live through the trauma of our war and will live with that their whole life.

We did all this terrible horrible stuff, but it is done and we can't change that. We now have a chance to do something good for the people of Iraq. We can give the people their country back. We can let every citizen of that country profit from all the oil they have. There is the potential for billions in profits and if American companies don't take it all, the Iraqi people will be able to live better than they ever dreamed of.

Of course Washington has already decided how things in the oil fields will work. American companies have been given the contracts which are worth billions of dollars to run Iraq's oil. We couldn't wait for Iraq to get back on its feet and have a Democratic government that could bid out this work and hire the people it wanted to work for them. America has given the Iraqi people no choice because we know what is best for them.

We have now started the Democratic process in some Iraqi towns and while thousands are outside protesting, the hand picked few that Washington likes, are inside voting on who will run things.

Yes, even with all the horror we have visited on the people of Iraq, we can still do some good, but what it will require is for Washington to get out of Iraq. What is needed now is an international group that can guide the Iraqi people to Democracy. Washington has shown the rest of the world that we can't do that.

The vision of oil and money gets in the way of the people we have thinking about Iraq's future. Those in Washington cannot understand that it is, "IRAQ'S FUTURE" and the people of Iraq should get to decide on what that future will look like.

Every Despot and Conqueror in history thought they knew what was best for the people they had just vanquished. George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are no different. Iraq will be made into the image that George and Donald have come up with and to hell with what the Iraqi citizen wants.