Patriotic Iraqi opposition to British and American Occupation of their Country.
To the Editor:
Ever since Bush rode in a jet fighter plane that landed on an aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of San Diego, California, where, on May 1, 2003, he, wearing his flight jacket, declared that "the major fighting in Iraq was over," he and others in his Administration have gone to great pains to vilify active resistance to British and American occupation forces in Iraq. The Iraqi resisters have been dismissed and smeared as merely die-hard Saddam supporters, hard-core Baath Socialist Party members, terrorists, criminals, professional hitmen, criminal gangs, renegades or religious fanatics.
Bush and his Administration don't have a clue. They seem to be completely unwilling to consider the fact that Iraqi opposition to imperial occupation of their country is a legitimate, patriotic and traditional activity. The Iraqis and the Kurds fought long and hard to resist the British occupation of their country after the collapse of the Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. After crushing Iraqi resistance through superior military technology (including the dropping of poisonous gases on a Kurdish Iraqi town: the first use of so-called "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq), the British agreed to divide up the vast Iraqi oil reserves between themselves, the Dutch, the French and the Americans.
Americans that actively opposed the invasion of American colonies in 1776 by British forces and their hired Hessian mercenaries were considered patriots and supported by most of the people living in America. We had a long struggle to free ourselves of British rule: a seven year war, from 1776 to 1783.
Bush and Blair and their Administrations have assumed the imperial role in Iraq. There is no way that this blatant military aggression based upon only lies and distortions will stand in the 21st century. British and American forces should be withdrawn from Iraq immediately and unconditionally.
Yours truly,
James K. Sayre
27 July 2003