Former Hussein government minister critical of US Iraq pullout | WPN World People News

Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, has been highly critical of the US policy to withdraw combat troops, which will happen despite a recent upsurge in violence.

Aziz has accused US president Obama of pressing ahead with a policy that will be "like leaving Iraq to the wolves."

Britain's Guardian newspaper has reported conversations with Aziz, who said the United States should stay in the country to fix up mistakes it had made since the 2003 invasion.

He told a Guardian reporter from prison, where he was jailed in 2009 for 15 years for murder and expelling Kurds from Iraq's north, that: "We are all victims of America and Britain. They killed our country in many ways. When you make a mistake you need to correct a mistake, not leave Iraq to its death."

Praising Saddam Hussein for his role in administering Iraq, he said: "For 30 years Saddam built Iraq and now it is destroyed. There are more sick than before, more hungry.The people don't have services. People are being killed every day in the tens, if not hundreds. I was encouraged when Barack Obama was elected president because I thought he was going to correct some of the mistakes of Bush. But Obama is a hypocrite. He is leaving Iraq to the wolves."

The comments from Aziz came after President Obama confirmed this week that the US would end its combat mission in Iraq as scheduled on August 31, despite July being Iraq’s deadliest month for more than two years.

Source: Europe News.Net