March 29, 2003 7:38 PM

Seumas Milne in Fighting for Their Independence:

Almost 86 years ago to the day, the British commander Lt. Gen. Stanley Maude issued a proclamation to the people of Baghdad, whose city his forces had just occupied. “Our armies,” he declared, “do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors, but as liberators.” Within three years, 10,000 had died in a national Iraqi uprising against the British rulers, who gassed and bombed the insurgents. On the eve of last week’s invasion Lt. Col. Tim Collins echoed Maude in a speech to British troops. “We go to liberate, not to conquer”, he told them. All the signs from the past few days are that a new colonial occupation of Iraq — however it is dressed up — will face determined guerrilla resistance long after Saddam Hussein has gone; and that the occupiers will once again be driven out.

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