By Staff
An official with the prison where Saddam is kept said the former Iraqi dictator watched the entire assembly on television. According to that official, "I imagine he was upset. He must have realized that the era of his government was over, and that there was no way he was returning to office."
More likely Saddam was hoping that an Iraqi democracy would fail miserably to the point his loyal followers begged his return to power.
The new Iraqi parliament is also coming together. Explosions and mortar fire punctuated the day as that governing body had its first official session as a free democracy.
With all the current turmoil in Iraq it would be easy to believe a large percentage of the country could not care less about democracy or any other "Western" ideal. Either that or a very vocal, militant and well-equipped minority wishes the downfall of what they believe to be a farcical government.
President Bush has declared that the United States would continue to fund the fledgling democracy until it could support itself.
Our country stands on a precipice of economic decline in the middle of the largest fuel crisis in American history and our government has taken a stance of taking care of foreign economic matters before addressing domestic ones.
If that is not outrageous enough it seems likely that the U.S. will not receive any benefit from continued support of Iraq.
The oil fields of Iraq are not even under the new government's control. The Kurdistan region that holds much of Iraq's oil is currently an independent region separate from the control of the new Iraqi government.
Kurdistan is independent in the way Puerto Rico is independent. It is owned by that country but has sovereignty over it's own affairs.
When the war began many believed the reason was to keep oil prices down rather than to end the rule of a dictator.
It seems now that oil prices may not have been a primary concern after all.
As Iraq becomes more of a money-pit-fix-'er-up project it becomes less clear what the war was really about.
Maybe time will tell.