The President of Iraq: We still need your help
The President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, wrote a plea to British Prime Minister Tony Blair today in The Times Online. The letter begins by defending the war in Iraq.
"Those who preferred the stability of the mass grave to liberation, and who raised their voices to save Saddam, but not his victims, have spuriously claimed that the war was fought to discover stocks of weapons of mass destruction. But Rolf Ekeus, the first head of the UN weapons inspectors, has argued that stocks were not the issue. Saddam could always re-create his stocks and until the end he could restart mustard gas production within months and nerve gas production within a couple of years. Moreover, Saddam used chemical weapons casually, gassing 5,000 Kurdish civilians at Halabja in 1988 and then using chemical bombs against Shia Arab civilians in 1991 after the Gulf War ceasefire."
The President of Iraq is asking America to stay the course, he is asking Britian, and the world, to be patient. President Talabani knows that democracies are not stabalized over night. It took our country from 1776-1789 to draft a constitution that works and since then we had a major civil war. How can we expect Iraq to draft a constitution, vote on it, ratify it, and then live by it in 3 years?
And the consequences for leaving Iraq prematurely?
"To abandon us now would be murderously irresponsible and cynical. The resulting devastation would outstrip that of the spring of 1991, when the Kurdish and Shia Arab uprisings were encouraged and then betrayed. Even Saddam's regime conceded that during those few weeks in 1991 that some 30,000 were killed. The true number was many times higher."
No matter the pretext for the liberation of Iraq, it happened. If we abandond these people now, it would be irresponsible and devastating. The loss of life would be huge and the same people that are protesting the war now, would be advocating that Bush send aid to the region.
President Talabani is almost on his knees begging for help..who will say no? Who will allow his country to dive into chaos and allow innocent people to die by the sword of oppression? Well, it seems the liberals are!
posted by Rob at 15:23
2 Comments:
Why didn't Talabani stand up to Saddam when the atrocities were occurring? If things were as bad as he says they were, he should have done something about them then. If you say it's because Saddam was too powerful to stand up to, that won't fly. The King of England was powerful, and the Colonies stood up to him. The King of France was powerful, and the people stood up to him. The Tsars of Russia were powerful, and they, too, were overthrown by the people. Do we really think the Iraqi people are so weak that they need our help? Or could it possibly be that they were OK with the situation as it was?
And yes, I'm posting this comment anonymously because I don't wish to have you harrass me. I'm more than happy to converse here, i just don't want it spilling over to my own site.
Tue Oct 11, 05:01:00 PM CDT
It took our country from 1776-1789 to draft a constitution that works and since then we had a major civil war. How can we expect Iraq to draft a constitution, vote on it, ratify it, and then live by it in 3 years?
How many democratic republics were around when the Founding Fathers of the USA drafted their constitution? Compare that to the number that Iraq has to look at. Part of the reason it took so long back then is because there were very few in existance for them to use as guides. The Iraqi's, on the other hand, have quite a few good examples to guide them. It shouldn't take them that long to modify an existing document to fit their needs.
Mon Oct 17, 05:58:00 PM CDT
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