Iraq: 'I am grateful to Mr Blair'
Updated on 29 January 2010
"Under Saddam people were executed for reasons they were unaware of." An Iraqi NHS consultant gives a personal account of why he is grateful coalition forces "gave Iraqis hope".
NHS consultant Mohammed Ibrahim was born in Iraq and reflects on why he supported the regime change in Iraq.
Against the war in Iraq: "Was the war worth it? My brother was shot, my son crippled and my family made homeless" - an Iraqi TV producer writes a personal account. Read the article here.
I support the war and I still feel it was the right decision to go to war against Saddam.
Getting rid of Saddam was a great idea. At least Iraqis can now hope for a better future.
Without the war, Saddam would have stayed in power and inevitably handed it to his son who was more brutal than Saddam!
I visit Iraq regularly; I am a member of the Middle East team of The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), UK.
The RCPCH is heavily involved in helping Iraqi paediatricians. You do not see the positives while you live in the UK; blame the press for not getting good stories to us.
Under Saddam, a professor earned £12 per month, now the same professor earns more that £3,000 a month!
I am a doctor, I spoke to colleagues in Iraq: the health service is in much better form and shape with children mortality rate (as an indicator of the general health of the population) falling.
The overwhelming majority I met there supported the war. People do have short memories!
Abu Ghraib was awful under the Americans but I was a doctor in Abu Ghraib [under Saddam] and it was much, much worse.
Under Saddam, I have seen people executed for the reasons they were unaware of, often with no reason at all, just doubts about their loyalty to Saddam. Iraq was the only country where people could face execution for negatively remarking the president.
The post war period was not ideal, dismantling the Iraqi army and police led us in to a mess. It could have been done better and saved many Iraqi and British lives.
Like it or not, there is an emerging democracy after 35 years of brutal dictatorship, it will be an anti-British value not to support it as it is the way for better respect of human rights.
It would be unfair not to support Iraq now for the British men and women who lost their lives in Iraq and unjust for their families.
Personally, I am grateful to Mr Blair who helped 25 million Iraqis to get their freedom and raise their hope in a bright future.
More importantly, I am grateful to all British soldiers who lost their lives; thankful to their families who I feel should know that their loved ones did not die in vain.
Furthermore, I thank every Brit who fought the war against the dark forces (Saddam, al-Qaida and others).
As for the UK, it showed that we moved from the old imperial style to be a liberation power for oppressed people.
