Deda,

You're absolutely priceless, best laugh I've had today - thanks.

Especially liked the last bit, "...we would have let them work out their own destiny; we would have let them learn to fish, so to speak."

It would have had to have been "so to speak" if you had been a Marsh Arab, living in the South, as Saddam forceably displaced about a million of them, then drained their marshes (where couldn't do that he contaminated the water). Prior to Saddam, who it appears you would have preferred to remain in power until ???, turning his malevolent and beady eyes on the Ma'adan, their fishing industry used to supply about 66,000 tonnes of fish a year.