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Look, I don't know about you, but for the last three years I have been getting angrier and angrier at the response from the Right every time someone tries to dissect the lies that led to Iraq.
You can, until you are blue in the face, point out the deceptions over the UN inspection program, the uranium purchases, the aluminum tubes, the biological warfare agents, the '45 minutes', the drones, the chemical warfare capabilities, the mobile laboratories, the links between Hussein and Al Quaeda. the lack of links between Hussein and Rumsfeld, the deceptions about the invasion of Kuwait, and the over-whelming deceit about the links between Hussein and September 11. You can talk about the flower strewn roads, Jessica Lynch, the America troops pulling down the statue in a close-up shot, the failure to protect antiquities and libraries while protecting oil interests, Halliburton, sacking public servants who were party members, selling national assets, disbanding the army, using mercenaries, killing civilians, Abu Ghraib, building permanent bases, destroying Fallujah, using napalm and depleted uranium.
And at the end of all that, Tony Blair (for example) can turn to the questioner and say, as his only response, 'Yes, but you must admit the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. And wasn't it good to free the people of Iraq from this brutal dictator?'. As if this unfolding disaster and death and destruction might get a faint nod, but of course it was all worth it if only to get rid of this bad man.
And the questioner is supposed to slink away, tail between legs, because this of course is one of those 'Have you stopped beating your wife yet?' questions. If you say no then you are on the side of the 'brutal dictator' and therefore lose all credibility, and if you say yes then you are agreeing that while there may have been an unfortunate event or two along the way, the end result was worth it. So we on the Left tend to mumble something quietly and avoid answering at all, and the Bushes and Blairs of this world win.
Well I've had enough and I am not going to take it any more.
Wait for it.
Actually, NO, I don't think the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. I think it is undoubtedly a worse place than it was four years ago before the invasion. And no, I don't think the people of Iraq are better off without Hussein, I think they are much worse off. So listen guys, you want to justify this disaster, find another way. This dog won't hunt any more.
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