Politics & Power Quote by Kay Granger

The line performs a neat political magic trick: it turns an invasion into a civics lesson. “Having removed the dictator” is a compressed moral premise, offered as settled fact, not debated history. It erases the messy middle (war rationale, casualties, occupation failures) and treats regime change as a clean precondition for democratic self-expression. That opening clause does the heavy lifting: if the first act is framed as liberation, the rest can be framed as benevolent stewardship.

“Moved to put Iraqis in control of Iraq” is the quote’s careful center of gravity. The verb “moved” sounds procedural, almost bureaucratic, as if sovereignty can be handed over like an administrative file. It also smuggles in a claim of restraint: the Allies aren’t imposing; they’re enabling. That’s the subtext aimed at skeptical audiences at home, especially in the post-2003 moment when “nation-building” needed a softer label.

The second sentence raises the stakes by shifting responsibility. Constitutional drafting becomes a diagnostic test: Iraq’s “character” will be “revealed” by the “principles it chooses to uphold.” That language flatters Iraqi agency while quietly setting up conditional legitimacy. If the constitution aligns with U.S.-preferred liberal-democratic norms, the project reads as vindicated; if it doesn’t, failure can be narrated as an internal shortcoming rather than the predictable consequence of occupation, sectarian fracture, and institutional collapse.

Contextually, it’s a forward-looking justification written in the grammar of optimism. It asks the reader to judge the war not by its origins, but by the document produced under its shadow.