Would you prefer the old way?
Apparently, the Iraqis would. Would not. Would. Would not.
Thank goodness the US had its own reasons for taking out Hussein and his despotic followers. At least that's a definite good. As for the Iraqis' opinion, frankly, screw them. Don't blame the US for coming in and liberating you. You want the old way? The way you're screwing up your own country, you'll probably get it again (and blame the US).
Witness these statements and accounts from the permalink-challenged NewsWeek of 2004-03-29, "A Year On, 'Everyone Is Torn'" by Melinda Liu. All emphasis (and any spelling errors) mine.
Iraq now has 250,000 mobile-phone users, compared with zero before Saddam's fall. Nevertheless, people have been impatient from day one. "Iraqis wanted things to be better straightaway," says Andy Bearpark, the Coalition Provisional Authority's operations and infrastructure chief. "They asked, 'Why can't you provide electricity 24/7 right now?' People have even accused us of stealing electricity and sending it back to Texas."
Quote from a barbershop owner Liu had befriended:
A year ago he watched Saddam's statue come down in Firdos Square, just outside his shop. "I felt sad," he admits. "I still don't know why. Maybe because foreigners had invaded my country." He pauses, then adds: "Saddam was unjust. But at least he was an Iraqi."
There's more, including (last paragraph) the Iraqi journalists who denounced the Coalition and walked out of a press briefing, exercising their new freedom to speak while keeping their tongues intact, as "a senior Coalition official" noted.
The sheer arrogance, short-sightedness and singular self-delusional righteousness continues to astound me.
I have no sympathy for the Iraqi people. They are reaping what they have sown.
You want a better life? Fight for it your own damn selves.
You will have to anyway. Very, very soon.