Department of Economics
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506

E-mail: alhamdi@ksu.edu
Phone: (785) 317-4422

Iraq is going to be sovereign and prosperous
First hand experience of an Iraqi man

I like to discuss Mr. Altaf Karim views on the American “invasion” of Iraq expressed in his article of April 16, 2004. Mr. Karim claims “American invasion unnecessary”. I wonder if he can suggest any other means to liberate the 25 million Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam’s regime. Has he ever heard about the mass graves found in Iraq where more than 500,000 innocent Iraqis including infants were buried, sometimes alive? The innocent Iraqi people suffered the consequences of three major wars with Iran (1980-1988), where around one million Iraqi died; the occupation of Kuwait (1990) and last year’s war which ended with the fall of the regime. All were the responsibility of the worst dictator in the second half of the 20th century. Mr. Karim needs to remember the former Iraqi dictator’s use of chemical weapons against Iran and his own people including the gassing of the city of Halabcha where about 10,000 innocent Iraqi Kurds were killed. During Saddam’s reign, millions of Iraqi Shias were killed or driven out of their lands in the south. Only Iraqis who suffered the dictatorship of Saddam are legitimate sources of the necessity of the invasion. No one in the world, including Iraqis wants to see their country occupied by a foreign military. I believe that war is bad, but when the only way to remove the dark age of Saddam’s regime is the help of the U.S. through Operation Iraqi Freedom, then let it be. His claim that the U.S forces oppressing the Iraqi people is completely biased and out of touch with reality. The U.S. committed more than $18 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq. I was in Iraq in January after 12 years in exile, and I saw the changes first hand. Since the fall of Saddam, Iraqi’s started expressing opinions freely in more than 200 new published newspapers. Millions of satellite dishes allow Iraqis to see the outside world instead of being fed by the state-controlled media which turned Saddam into a deity. Banned under the Saddam’s regime, internet has begun to reach schools, businesses, and homes in Iraq. Health system has improved greatly. Thousands of schools have been renovated and millions of textbooks are printed without Saddam’s face and words. Electric power is above pre-war levels. Drinking water is now available to millions of Iraqi people, even in remote rural areas. Salaries have increased about 30 times with a new currency which is twice the value of the old currency. Iraqi oil production is higher than it was before the war. Thanks to the help of American Forces and money. The Iraqi Construction Program is doing a superb job in rebuilding the infrastructure, which Saddam ignored for decades to build his lavish palaces. I totally agree with Mr. Karim about enabling the Iraqis to create a democratic country. This is the goal of the vast majority of Iraqis (except Saddam loyalists and radicals). However, I disagree with him on the way to achieve it. His suggestion of the immediate pull out of U.S troops is the most absurd part of his argument. This indicates that Mr. Karim has no knowledge about the reality of the situation in Iraq. The fall of Saddam’s regime was the collapse of the whole Iraqi state system. Iraq needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The need for a strong force on the ground to keep the country as a whole and prevent the fragile security condition from turning into chaos is inevitable. Pulling the U.S. troops out immediately can lead to either the return of the former evil Baathist regime or the beginning of a bloody civil war. Should this happen, Iraq will go through a dark tunnel of ethnic, religious, tribal, and regional civil wars, which could destroy the whole Middle East. When I was in Iraq, I talked with people from all sectors of the society. I came to the conclusion that the Iraqis do not want to see the coalition forces in Iraq because they represent foreign occupation, but they do not want them to leave immediately because they know it leads to devastating results. The only winners in that case are the insurgents who kill Iraqis and Americans every day in order to set the political agenda through violence. By sticking to the June 30th deadline, set by the U.N., Iraqi sovereignty can be achieved. Mr. Lakhdar Lebrahimi, the U.N. envoy succeeded to bring the different Iraqi political groups and the U.S. to an agreement on an Iraqi government with wide representation. This government and the consultant council which will emerge from a large national conference of all political, religious, tribal, and intellectual Iraqi groups will prepare for free direct election of a national assembly in January 2005. The assembly will draft a permanent constitution and monitor the direct election of a national government. This will give the Iraqi people the chance to rule their country in a democratic way after decades of oppressing dictatorships. President Bush stressed that the U.S. is going to stay the course in Iraq to achieve the goal of building a free, democratic, and prosperous Iraq at peace with its people and neighbors- as long as it takes but not one day more.
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