Saddam has been taking Iraqi blood in exchange for oil for years

What appears to be beyond the grasp of many in the West is the scale and scope of a modern totalitarianism regime such as Saddam's. It is truly - to use Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya's term - a "Republic of Fear". It is a regime which conducts its ruthless totalitarian control through an estimated 280,00 secret police, and treats its populace with complete contempt, as the recent humiliation dealt to the Iraqi people by Saddam's 'referendum' demonstrated yet again.

There is incontrovertible evidence to suggest that Saddam has acted in continuous violation of the disarmament conditions of the post Kuwait cease-fire. As recently as 2000 Saddam engaged with the criminal Milosevic regime in joint activities to produce weapons of mass destruction.

That Saddam's December declaration to the United Nations is conspicuously flawed should come as a surprise to no one. He is an old lag with form. He has violated every agreement to which he has subscribed - how can anyone credibly suggest that he will change now?

Can the view of ordinary Iraqis be ascertained on these issues? One can be excused for wishing to look past the recent grotesque 'referendum' that delivered Saddam a 99.9 per cent vote of approval. Interestingly, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (headed by former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans) conducted an informal survey of Iraqi opinion in September and October 2002 in major Iraqi cities. It observed that a significant number of the Iraqis interviewed, "with surprising candour, expressed their view that, if such a change required an American-led attack, they would support it."

Something more substantial than the vacuous 'no blood for oil' chant will be required to dissuade those of us on the left who dissent from the empty 'no war on Iraq' rhetoric. Those who have followed closely the grotesque history of the Saddam regime recognise the dire need, on human rights grounds alone, for regime change in Iraq. So too, it seems more will be necessary to dissuade the bulk of ordinary Iraqis - the real victims of Saddam's blood for oil campaign - against the desirability of regime change.