Letter: Do Iraqis really want democracy?

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

I am mystified as to why the citizens of Iraq did not revolt against Saddam Hussein during his 30-year reign of terror.

I realize that revolutions are not easy to accomplish, especially when the leadership has control over its military. The American, French and Russian revolutions were successfully accomplished against brutal dictatorial governments. Granted, their situations were somewhat different than that of Iraq. The Russian revolution was accomplished against odds comparable to those in Iraq in that the czar initially had complete control over his military. True, the succeeding Russian government was not to our liking.

With these points in mind, I wonder how strongly the people of Iraq want a free democratic government.

Twenty-twenty is good hindsight, but perhaps if we had helped the Iraqi people create a revolution against Saddam , rather than invade and have the results now in place, they would have already had in place a government to their liking.

True, this sounds simplistic and therefore I suspect there was some strong underlying reason involved as to how it was handled.

Clarence Lanzrath, Las Vegas