Iraq: I Thought We Were Fighting for Their Democracy

One of the premises for the war in Iraq was to free the people and allow them to form a democratic form of government. The White House propaganda on the subject was that a democratic Iraq could serve as a light and a change agent for the whole middle east reason. This was one of the primary justifications for continue with the war even when it was determined their were no weapons of mass destruction as original stated. With this in mind, I read today that 20 members of the Iraqi government were arrested for attempting to revive Saddam Hussein’s old political party. According to the AP article:

More than 20 employees of Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior have been arrested on allegations that they were plotting to revive Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party, government officials said Thursday.

It further goes on to state that:

Outlawing the Baath party was the first official act of the U.S.-run occupation authority which ruled until June 2004. The purge of thousands of Baath party members from government jobs cost the country the services of skilled people who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies. - Source: Yahoo News

I understand that initially when taking down a despotic leader one would want to potentially deconstruct the major party under pinning him. But at what point, if the real premise is of the war was democratic change, can you justify eliminating democracy to create that change? Isn’t that oxymoronical? Or was the war less about creating a true democracy and more about us A) putting a foot in Saddam’s rear end, and B) establishing another presence in the middle east? I hate being the cynic but…….

Others Blogging (Sort Of): Booker Rising