Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Our last occupation

"Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.
Your city and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers, your palaces have fallen into ruins, your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from by unjust men and squandered in distant places.
It is our wish that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and when Baghdad was one of the wonders of the world."
--Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Maude, The Proclamation of Baghdad; March 19, 1917, three years before Britain began gassing Iraqi civillians.