The occupier wants to appear enlightened and even as a liberator, at least in his own eyes. Thus he can win legitimacy at home and among the warriors themselves. But no nation is grateful for being occupied. In any event, if the occupation proves long-lasting, the American soldiers, who are today carrying Iraqi infants in their arms, will eventually chase them down alleys, beat them and kill them, as our soldiers do.

Although we have not yet completely prepared the site for reconstruction, we are nonetheless preparing for that event. Reconstruction was not, of course, the main purpose of the war. The buildings were perfectly OK before they were blown up. So were the victims of the bombing. They were both blown up to effect regime change.

Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra roadway. A small Iraqi girl ? victim of an Anglo American air strike ? is brought to hospital with her intestines spilling out of her stomach. A terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off her black dress.

On January 17th 1991, the President of the USA, George Bush, supported mainly by an army from the UK, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children. He claimed his actions were purely “to defend civilized values around the world” to set up “a world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle”, and to bring about “a world where the strong respect the rights of the weak”.

Among the justifications President Bush is offering for invading Iraq is the need to install a democratic Iraqi government. Don’t bet on it happening. Apart from the inherent contradiction in establishing democracy at the point of a gun, there is ample reason to be skeptical of this claim. The U.S. Middle East alliance system leans heavily on monarchs, sheikhs and dictators. The CIA has backed numerous coups against democratic governments, most notably against legally elected Prime Minister Mossadeq in Iran in 1953. Currently, we are seeking to depose Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who won 88 per cent of the vote in the freest elections witnessed in the region in the last decade. Thus, supporting Iraqi democracy would run completely counter to our tradition.