“take matters into their own hands”

Lots of U.S. newspapers are reporting the uncovering of mass graves in Iraq, containing bodies of rebels killed in 1991 by Saddam Hussein’s forces.

And rightly so. What Saddam did was positively horrible. Absolutely.



There’s just one little detail, not in dispute and until recently widely reported (as, say, here and here and here ), now suddenly disappearing from the record:



The 1991 uprisings occurred after encouragement from George I, who called for “the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands” , then abandoned the rebellions which followed to their fate.

This Modern World