‘Saddam Tortured Us, But He did not Toy with our Honor’

Haldun Abu Fettah runs an internet cafe in Baghdad. He said, ‘the U.S. President, George W. Bush, accepted the barbarous act and he did not apologize. Now they try to cover up the incident with reparations.’ Fettah says most of his time he follows the developments in Iraw via the internet. He said, "If they [the photos] were issued by an Arabic institution, they would have claimed that they were photomontage." In a criticism of Talabani’s statement, Abu Fettah continued to say: "Excusing the incidents is inhuman. Even while the U.S. President says he was sorry for the incidents, saying such things is promoting terrorism for nothing. We have been living under violence for years and we are sick of it."

Meanwhile, another Iraqi, Velid Nasir, a state officer, thinks that the photographs revealed American soldiers’ true feelings about the Iraqi people. He says America’s claim, ‘we are here for democracy’ is no longer convincing, Nasir said: "There are hidden powers in this thing. The incidents are not the personal mistakes of a few soldiers. Their goal is to provoke terror and justify themselves. They try to prove that they are right by invading our country." He added that Talabani’s statements were neither Islamic nor human: "There is a point that Talabani is wrong about. It is true that Saddam also killed people and mistreated them but even during his time nobody played with our honor as such."