Nostalgia for a Time (Before Bush's War) When Iraq Did Not Live Under an Exceptional Climate of Violence

Dismissing fully — and without further ado — Iraq's constitution, Joseph Yacoub goes on to lament a country in which daily needs are allegedly subjugated to an

exceptional climate of violence, of fear, of rising criminality, of enormous security deficits, of economic crisis… of absence of the state's presence …

An exceptional climate of violence?

Of fear?

Of rising criminality?

Of enormous security deficits?

Tell me, Monsieur Yacoub, do you have any idea of what life in Iraq was like under the Ba'athist régime?

Of course, the state was present — and how: it was omnipresent. And the criminals weren't at risk, hiding in the streets. They were in full view in the state apparatus with total impunity. No petty crooks, either. Torturers and assassins. Serial killers.

But, of course, for those brought up on a steady diet of the statist religion, such nuances may not count for much. Yacoub goes on:

All of this under foreign occupation.

There you have it. There is the big sin under which Iraq is currently operating. Forget about all the rest.