> Self-emancipation is really hard. To believe that the Iraqis could
> have done it by themselves in less than decades is, IMHO, an act of
> self-deception.
But they did come close once, the uprising in 1991. Is it irrelevant to point out that US policy towards the Iraqi uprising was to help Saddam crush it? Is it impolite of me to remind you that the National Security Council director for the Middle East went to Congress in March 1991 and said: "You don't understand. Our policy is to get rid of Saddam, not his regime"?
Seth