Questions about the occupation of Iraq (that few want to ask):

1. Will old contracts for oil be torn up because they were concluded by a "corrupt" regime that did not represent the interests of the people? What about so-called "odious" debt? Will we revisit similar actions taken by Third World countries, like the agricultural reforms taken by Castro in the 1960s, and legitimize them? Did not the umbrella of "oil for food" (which really allowed more basic goods to flow into the country) work for the average Iraqis?

2. Who are the Iraqis who are partying? Where are the rest of them? Why do they express themselves with such (symbolic) violence? Are the scene really comparable to Berlin in 1989? (The crowds around the wall were hundred of people deep on both sides; people hugged each other rather than beat up pictures of Honecker; they did not fly the equivalent of the "rebel flag" (as are the Kurds.))

3. Are exiles legitimate leaders for Iraq? What capabilities do they have? Can they act independently of the American regime? How could they be more legitimate than the people who experienced the regime the most (if everyone suffered under Hussein, does not doing more time count for more)?

4. What are the other commodities that Iraqi possesses besides oil? Will US allow construction of real industries that are capable of competing on the world marker (including with US firms)? How will they move beyond the economic backwardness of an oil economy?

5. Without Hussein, is Iraq really a nation? On what basis can its political culture be understood?