TOP IRAQI LAWMAKER: 'OUR PEOPLE WILL NOT TURN THE OTHER CHEEK' Filed October 13, 2002 By Jeremy Scahill   Iraqi lawmaker Saddoun Hamadi. BAGHDAD—As President George W Bush continues to celebrate the virtually blank check to attack Iraq he was granted by the US Congress, the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament told Iraqjournal.org that the country is prepared for the possibility of a US ground invasion, saying Bush's "adventure" will be fought back by "all available means." "Our people will fight. We will not turn the other cheek," said Saddoun Hamadi, a US educated politician who is Iraq's top lawmaker. "Any aggression on our country will be met with fighting. The United States will incur losses. We are sure that at the end of the road, at the end of the day, this adventure will be a failure and the United States will be committing a great mistake. It will be leading itself to a catastrophe." As Iraqi diplomats continue to express optimism that war can be averted through a return of United Nations weapons inspectors and international pressure, Iraq's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said this weekend, "The dreams of the American colonialists will end up in the trash can of history." ------------ Jeremy Scahill is an independent journalist, who reports for the nationally syndicated Radio and TV show Democracy Now! He is currently based in Baghdad, Iraq, where he and filmmaker Jacquie Soohen are coordinating Iraqjournal.org, the only website providing regular independent reporting from the ground in Baghdad. Back to the Index.
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