WHO ELSE WAS GONNA DO IT?:

Liberation after the liberation (Anthony Barnett, 4/08/04, Open Democracy)

I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein, who longed for his overthrow. But I was obliged to march against the US invasion. However much I sympathised with Saddam’s Iraqi opponents I argued in openDemocracy.net (“World opinion: the new superpower?”, 18 March 2003) that the American move on Iraq was part of an ill-conceived global strategy carried out by a leadership that cared little for the people and realities of Iraq [...]

The neo-cons have declared the need for democracy across the ‘greater Middle East’. Are they right! But the less credibility they have as the people to introduce democracy the more important it becomes to support it. It remains the right thing, even if they are the wrong people going about it in the wrong way.

As Iraq moves towards its own liberation and throws off America’s timetable, it is important for us to extend every hand and ear to all Iraqi democrats of every creed and sect - Kurd and Arab, Sunni and Shi’a - for they cannot build democracy on their own.

If it weren't the lives of real people they were toying with when they stage their little marches, this is the kind of Leftist you could almost feel sorry for. Even while proclaiming how much he cares about them, he'd rather the Iraqis suffer under Saddam than be liberated by us.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2004 10:57 PM