Iraq deserves an apology from the U.S. government

Editor,

This letter is in regard to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. If the problem was simply to remove Saddam Hussein from power and liberate the Iraqi people from oppression, this could have been done 17 years ago.

The current president's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, urged for sanctions to be put on Iraq so the Iraqis would overthrow Hussein. After an estimated 400,000 to 800,000 children had died under these genocidal sanctions, Hussein was still in power. He did not murder those children, though. Hussein was not the one starving the Iraqi people.

Do you really think President Bush, the person whose father was responsible for the murders of so many innocent children, is the liberator of Iraq? If Bush really wanted to help the Iraqis, he would have removed the sanctions back in 2000. If President Clinton wanted to help the Iraqis, he would have stopped bombing Iraq and removed the sanctions. If the first President Bush wanted to remove Hussein, he could have had him killed 17 years ago.

What's the best plan of action now? Simple. All the parents who have lost their children, and all the children who have lost their parents, throughout the sanctions, bombing and invasion of Iraq should be compensated. All U.S. armed forces personnel and their families should be taken care of.

All of Iraq's resources should be handed back to the Iraqi

government so it can take care of its people. Similar to how the U.S. spent thousands of dollars to give due process to Hussein, such due process should be given to the thousands of innocent people being tortured in American prisons.

Also, U.S. forces in Iraq should put more effort into protecting Iraqis from the civil war instead of focusing on useless tasks. There are countless ways of accomplishing this, like creating Iraqi security forces using only politically neutral people.

Finally, the U.S. should give a grand, formal apology to every Iraqi family who has had people killed, maimed, raped or tortured as a result of the U.S. government's actions.

Ahmad Musleh

UNM student