Iraqis Embrace Democracy With a Vengeance: They're Suing Us

Posted on October 7, 2004

Some Iraqis are reportedly demanding compensation from the U.S. for damage to the country. Aljazeera.net is reporting a statement by Suha Said, a member of the Iraqi interim parliament, who said "now that the WMD file is closed, it's only natural that Washington should compensate the Iraqi people for all the damage inflicted since April 9, 2003." Mr. Said is, of course, referring to the bombshell report released today by the President Bush's handpicked chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer. The exhaustive report concludes that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear capability and was no threat to the United States.

The report also notes that Saddam dreamed of the day sanctions would be removed and at that time he intended to get some more weapons -- to guard against arch-enemy Iran. It also revealed that Saddam hoped to mend relations with the United States and bluffed about having WMD so as not to lose face in front of Iran.

Iyad al-Samarrai of the Iraqi Islamic Party said today that the Duelfer Report proves the war was "not legitimate" and that "All the information available before the war showed that [President] Saddam Hussein had put an end to his [weapons] programme." Therefore, reports Al-Jazeera, the Iraqi government states that the U.S. invasion was illegal under international law. The Iraqis are apparently demanding an apology and compensation for the loss of 15,000 Iraqi lives and damage to infrastructure, which they are willing to to go court to obtain.

Now, how does one say "tort reform" in Arabic?