To understand Iraq NOW, one must study it's past for it to make any sense remotely.

The following information will take aprox 12 pages, each subject on a different page. I'll put them here in one spot. Much sounds like it "could be worse".. put it together and it's terror. Especially the part about women.

Executive Summary
In 1979, immediately upon coming to power, Saddam Hussein silenced all political opposition in Iraq and converted his one-party state into a cult of personality. Over the more than 20 years since then, his regime has systematically executed, tortured, imprisoned, raped, terrorized and repressed Iraqi people. Iraq is a nation rich in culture with a long history of intellectual and scientific achievement. Yet Saddam Hussein has silenced its scholars and doctors, as well as its women and children.

Iraqi dissidents are tortured, killed, or disappear in order to deter other Iraqi citizens from speaking out against the government or demanding change. A system of collective punishment tortures entire families or ethnic groups for the acts of one dissident. Women are raped and often videotaped during rape to blackmail their families. Citizens are publicly beheaded, and their families are required to display the heads of the deceased as a warning to others who might question the politics of this regime. Saddam Hussein was also the first leader to use chemical weapons against his own population, silencing more than 60 villages and 30,000 citizens with poisonous gas.

Saddam Hussein has tried to silence ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq as well. During the Anfal Campaign of 1987-88, Saddam Hussein’s regime killed and tortured the Kurdish population. It eliminated many Kurdish villages, and forced surviving Kurds into zones where he could control them. His regime has suppressed the Shi’a religious community through killings and arrests and bans their Friday prayers and books in certain regions. He has also targeted the citizens of other nations in his region, killing and torturing Kuwaiti and Iranian citizens, among others.

The Iraqi people are not allowed to vote to remove the government. Freedom of expression, association and movement do not exist in Iraq. The media is tightly controlled – Saddam Hussein’s son owns the daily Iraqi newspaper. Iraqi citizens cannot assemble except in support of the government. Iraqi citizens cannot freely leave Iraq.

The international community, including the U.N. and internationally-based nongovernmental organizations, has documented and repeatedly condemned this regime’s horrific record of abuse. Saddam Hussein simply ignores the will of the rest of the world.

Saddam Hussein has given the Iraqi people a terrible choice – to remain silent - or face the consequences. But despite his regime’s attempts to silence the Iraqi people, their voices are still being heard.

Sure Saddam is gone. But Iraq is still in shambles. And the key to understand Iraq today.... means understanding the last 30+ years of history.

You have to have a understanding of a culture that has been abused for generations. And is dysfunctional. Our ideas are crazy to them.

If anyone could get behind that I would think that a liberal community would.

Thanks for considering the thoughts here or reading the reports, or in watching the lives lost that were captured on film.

Take from it what you need from the information to understand Iraq. Don't descend like wolves to tear it apart. This is here in the spirit of understanding only.

I agree ... we can't abandon them... Thank you for inputting this information...

Yes it has been conveniently buried from the start....and all Americans should know the truth..

I have a very close family friend from Iraq who told me some of this... He left because of the atrocities and before he could be drafted in Saddam's military ... he was such a monster. This was many, many years ago. He left his family, some to never see again because of Saddam.

I was aware of these acts by Saddam and his family. It was the one and only justification for going over there. It's also the reason to establish a fair government so no other despot can repeat the past.

I don't know why they are saying WMD's were not found when they were used liberally over there. We have found cashes of chemical WMD's.

To me this is a liberal attack on the white house.