Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
There was a time when I supported ousting Saddam, but since it has meant all the death and destruction that has come since, I have to question whether
the people of Iraq are really better off now, under the occupation of the US, than with Saddam in charge.
And I haven't seen any evidence that Iraq has a free society. Would that be a good outsome? Yes, but I am not at all convinced that it will ever
happen. They are not free. They are occupied by a foreign nation.
Besides, we supposedly went in there because of WMDs, to protect ourselves, not to free Iraqis. Only when there were no WMDs did the mission change to
one of 'spreading freedom'.
The way I see it, Iraq is taking 1 step back now, to take two steps forward n the future.
After Saddam died, one of his sons would have taken over. That would have simply perpetuated the situation. Frankly, the only way they were going to
have a chance at a free society was if a western nation/group of nations helped them.
I think the biggest problem was that this was not taken care of in GWI. Thats what needed to be done, with the whole world involved - especially the
Muslim world. I remember seeing Muslim forces as leading the way (after the US took out the threats of course). This was a very good image to give the
Muslim world.
Unfortunately though, this was not done, and Bush 1/the UN decided to 'let it go', and then the UN proceeded to not even inforce their own rules on
Saddam (because of bribes). Of course the US was going to take him out after 9/11 - he was in violation of his terms of peace.
My thoughts are that in 2 or 3 decades Iraq will have emerged as
the model for the middle east. It will be a rough road, but one that we must
follow.
