Reparations to Iraq

• The US destroyed a country, killed its people, wiped out its infrastructure.
• It's been established that the arguments used to justify the invasion were untrue, and were known to be untrue at the time of the invasion.
• The invasion and the continuing occupation were known to be unjustified at the time of the action.

Every time I raise this in conversation, someone asks how can reparations be paid when there is no functioning government.

Today Tim Grieve, in A surge for diplomacy in Salon' War Room (1/10/2007), pointed towards an answer:

Launching a series of hearings on the war in Iraq, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were told by a panel of experts this morning that the only real hope for Iraq will come through international diplomacy -- or when the participants involved in sectarian violence decide that they've got more to gain by striking deals than by killing each other.

More to gain! What if those gains included reparations, US withdrawal, cancellation of any oil agreements signed during the occupation, closure of all US military bases, and turning over the monstrous US Embassy currently under construction in Baghdad to the Iraqi people? What if those gains were guaranteed by international diplomacy? Reparations would offer hope, respect, and recognition of Iraq as a sovereign nation. Reparations would go a long way toward healing a broken country.

In addition, the call for reparations would acknowledge US responsibility for the daily carnage. Too many pundits have been blaming the victim. Let's reframe the conversation.