Which way would secure real democracy?

Submitted by Ulla Sandbaek. Member of the European Parliament (Belgium), Mar 31, 2003 at 11:06

I have read more commentaries about sept 11th and the war in Irak than I can count and in no case have I read or heard anybody who does not condemn Saddam Hussein and his regime. There is total agreement about wanting this regime to disappear. The disagreement is how this should happen: In waging war on his people, or by a democratic process in Iraq protected by UN human rights inspectors - which would last longer but which would secure true democracy.

I was in Iraq a month ago with a parlamentary delegation. Iraq's people do not have good experiences with the U.S. They may hate Saddam Hussein - and most of them do - but they rightfully blame the U.S for having given Saddam Hussein the chemical weapons he had been using and for the present total dependance of the population on Saddam Hussein and the extreme poverty in which they find themselves. To imagine that the American troops would be great liberators is extremely naive and shows a total lack of investigating into the most basic facts of the region. The U.S,. is seen as an occupying force and will - as is seen already - been fought as such, and when the war is over there will still be resistance among the Iraqi people. Such are the realities. Those people who protest the war are extremely concerned about the death of innocent iraqi civilians and about their democaratic rights which are not to be once more suppressed now by the Americans (after having been killed by them) but to form their own democracy .

Yours
Ulla Sandbaek

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