Should the United States apologize to Iraqis and pay their country reparations? Now, ten years after an invasion that was illegal under international law and based on mistaken pretexts, Al-Iraq News columnist Jamal Muhammad Taqi argues that it’s time for America to make amends – but he has little expectation that it will.
For Al-Iraq News, Jamal Muhammad Taqi starts off this way:
To turn the page on the past, the least America and Britain can do for the Iraqi people is apologize and compensate them for the catastrophic material damage inflicted on themselves, their natural environment and their infrastructure. This is damage that will leave its mark for a century. The most practical punishment would be to see the U.S.-British agenda for which the invasion and occupation were carried out – thwarted. That would be the only reasonable punished for a crime unequaled by any in the world.
On the anniversary of the invasion, the above suggestion seems like some kind of dream or small talk between acquaintances, since the people who currently rule Iraq consider the invasion and occupation to have been necessary to liberate the country from those that used to rule! According to them, the Americans and British deserve thanks, gratitude, and sometimes compensation for what they lost in Iraq during the invasion and occupation. This is understandable coming from a group that collaborated from the beginning, and for which the invasion and occupation are the reasons for their hold on power. Naturally they owe everything to the occupiers and will inevitably stand against any of the above-listed demands. In any event, we’re not counting on those appointed to govern by the occupiers, but on all free patriots who are organizing themselves and shifting from armed resistance to political and legal resistance. And thanks to Allah, they are many!
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