‘Much of the square was empty’: Saeed Naqvi on Saddam’s statue coming down
The occupation of Iraq was undertaken with great fanfare. Vice President Dick Cheney was the spirit behind this operation, which was implemented by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The complete misreading of the public mood in Iraq, where I was present, was replicated in every detail in the Iran expedition begun on 28 February 2026. In Iraq in 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld had expected an uprising to topple the regime and embrace the Americans as liberators. What I was witness to in Baghdad was quite the opposite of what Cheney had boasted.
At the time, Yaqub (S.Y. Quraishi) had taken over as…
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