‘As all students today know, Iraq is the country that the
US invaded with the attempt to convert the state and the people from enemy to
friend. On the face of it, this sounds rather implausible, of course. Good
fences make good neighbours. Friendship and peace are not usually the result of
insults, sanctions, invasions, bombings, killings, puppet governments,
censorship, economic controls, and occupations. If this generation learns
anything from this period, that would be a good start. 

Earlier students thought of Iraq
as the country that was forever being denounced by the Clinton administration
and by Bush's father when he was president. Why? Iraq, it seems, had some crazy
notion that the US might attempt an invasion at some point in the future, and
thus thought it had better prepare by spending money on its military. Its
weapons program, however, was quickly dismantled under pressure from the UN. 

Doubtful that Iraq had really
given up the idea of creating a viable national defense, the US cobbled
together extreme sanctions against the country, preventing it from trading with
the world. The standard of living plummeted. Middle class merchants suffered.
The poor died without the essentials of life. The child mortality rate soared.
The head of the US State Department told a reporter on national television that
even if US sanctions had resulted in 500,000 child deaths, they were “worth
it.”’ 

Iraq And
The Democratic Empire