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Reader's
Comments:
It
will take some time to get your government running smoothly. We
need to get your police force of Iraqi people established so
that the former regime will not come to power again. This means
training and helping with those of you who have been excluded
from these possibilities before the downfall of the Saddam
regime.
You
will need to learn how to structure your society with freedom as
you are not used to having this freedom; and choices need to be
made for the betterment of all your citizens. We are not trying
to take away your religion or rights to worship as you please.
You
seem to be a very intelligent and schooled society and this will
be of great help to you. If we wanted to occupy your country,
you would not be allowed free speech, free worship, and any
forming of any country. Most of us in the
USA
are Christians and not Muslims. We are truly trying to do for
you what we would want you to do to us if things were reversed.
We are trying to work with Islam, a religion that most of us
know little about, and sometimes we make terrible mistakes –
we are sorry for these things to happen.
I
wish you peace and prosperity with your present and future.
Reply:
As
Muslims and Arabs, the speedy restoration of services and order
to
Iraq
is not our sole concern, though it is a major one. It is hard
not to notice that the new police force being formed in
Iraq
may well contain the same torturers the
US
used as a pretext for its invasion. This has been noted by
journalists in
Iraq
who have come to realize that there has been no effort by US
troops to find records of torture and the names of those
responsible for perpetrating it.
Additionally,
it is very distressing to us to find that the
US
bombed and killed with the stated aim of restoring
Iraq
's freedom from oppression, and yet, Donald Rumsfeld
specifically ruled out the option of Islamic rule. How is that
in keeping with the idea of freedom and democracy?
Iraq
was denied an Islamic system under Saddam; it is being denied
the same under
US
occupation. What is the point?
We
thank you for your concern and your e-mail.
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