I agree with Nigel Stark's comments. Saying that Bush planned the timing of Saddam’s capture is pretty ridiculous. Both Republicans and Democrats unfortunately have a few embarrassing and extremist members who get a little too carried away in the ideological and political party wars.
I think it’s equally extreme and only contributes to the problem, however, when we take their antics and apply them to all Democrats, or all Republicans. More importantly, I think that there are several important aspects of Saddam’s capture to consider.
Bush is getting a boost in popularity right now. And if he is lucky, Saddam’s trial will occur during election season 2004. Then, Americans will be reminded of what a murderous jerk he was, and Bush will get credit for removing him from power.
The problem is that Bush didn’t take us into Iraq to save the Iraqi people. If he did, then surely we’d be moving on to save all those other countries that are currently under equally brutal leaders.
No, Bush told us we were going after terrible Weapons of Mass Destruction ready to reign death upon our heads. His evidence was later proven false, exaggerated, or forged. Bush implied links to al Qaeda that were also later proven false.
Bush took us into Iraq because of the unrealistic, neo-conservative vision of democratizing the middle-east. Bush took us into Iraq because it has oil. Bush took us into Iraq because of the history our nation, and maybe his family, has had with Saddam.
But ever since the war, when the WMDs and al Qaeda links failed to materialize, when it became clear we had ignored the UN's wishes, efforts, and plans (the very crime Bush accused Saddam of) to launch a pre-emptive invasion of a country that was not threatening us, the story has been changed.
Now, we went in there to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed and brutalized people. And Bush is their savior. Never mind that American troops are paying the price of his decision to go it virtually alone, and American taxpayers are bearing the heavy burden of fixing the messy aftermath. Never mind the same goal could have been acheived smarter and safer.
Bush got Saddam. Yea for Bush.
Written by Randy Henderson,
a regular contributor to NEXT.
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