I never heard an outburst like the one a young Iraq Shia boy made as I helplessly watched from my own prison cell as he was tortured by Saddam’s guards, until my golden retriever cried out one day after she was bitten by a Rottweiler.
The influential journal Foreign Affairs ran an article on Iraq entitled “The Rollback Fantasy.” But unfortunately, it got Iraqi’s basic demographic’s all wrong to create a myth that misled President George W. Bush and others.
Top administration officials tried to censor outlets like Al Jazeera. But, instead of enhancing our security, these efforts have only undermined the best evidence we now have against our principal enemy.
Then-Vice President Al Gore was the first high-level U.S. official ever to publicly promise to promote “democracy in Iraq.” Nothing would be more revolutionary for a place that had been long dominated by a small minority.
Baghdad waited only three days last week before rejecting a British/Dutch proposal to finally lift economic sanctions against Iraq in exchange for new inspections into its ability to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Who doesn’t want a new government in Baghdad? The Clinton administration’s sustained airstrikes against Iraq will cripple some of Saddam Hussein’s military capabilities, but few believe that unilateral bombing will, by itself, compel lasting change in Iraq.
President Clinton is committed to backing Iraqi opposition forces toward eventually forming a new government in Baghdad, say Clinton administration officials. But they acknowledge that risky strategy could take years to bear fruit.
