Soapbox on Saddam
Dec. 15th, 2003 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootWell well. They’ve got him. Good.
In my heart, I can’t be sorry that we went into Iraq. I have always been torn about this. Every nation state reserves the right to harm its own. This is one of the basic elements of sovereignty. To overthrow it is a precedent we would eject if someone attempted to use it against us.
And of course, the excuse looks lame at the moment, the motives very questionable. But the result surely is better for Iraq long term. Does the end justify the means? Academically, no, but this is a pat and easy answer, a popular answer. I am not one of the many abused, I have not undergone torture and rape. Has anybody asked the victims what they think?
Long before this war started, the stories of Saddam’s atrocities were known. In the face of such cruelty, the academic argument looks self indulgent. We do not approve of the motives for going into the war. So we go on a march and blow a whistle. Do we then approve of torture and rape? Of course not. So what do we do? Write a petition? He’s not listening. Go on a march? He’s not listening and he’s far away. Go on a march in Iraq? The whistles would not be blowing long. No jolly bandwagon here. So what do we do? Nothing? By the tenets of our own laws, silence equals consent.
Maybe Bush is greedy. Maybe Bush is atoning for what his father failed to finish. I don’t know. I dislike this man’s environmental policies, and I mistrust his links to oil interests. But I cannot be sorry that the abuse of Iraquis by Saddam’s regime is over, and if the war is what it took to stop it, well, OK, though I would prefer a peaceful method of achieving the same end. I am glad of the message being sent out, that the powerful must be accountable. Hopefully, with so much information being presented across the globe, opinion will grow more informed, the pitfalls of doing anything for money exposed. Saddam would not be there if we hadn’t supported him, sold him weapons, backing, expertise, played the game. There’s something, surely, to be learned from this.
In my heart, I can’t be sorry that we went into Iraq. I have always been torn about this. Every nation state reserves the right to harm its own. This is one of the basic elements of sovereignty. To overthrow it is a precedent we would eject if someone attempted to use it against us.
And of course, the excuse looks lame at the moment, the motives very questionable. But the result surely is better for Iraq long term. Does the end justify the means? Academically, no, but this is a pat and easy answer, a popular answer. I am not one of the many abused, I have not undergone torture and rape. Has anybody asked the victims what they think?
Long before this war started, the stories of Saddam’s atrocities were known. In the face of such cruelty, the academic argument looks self indulgent. We do not approve of the motives for going into the war. So we go on a march and blow a whistle. Do we then approve of torture and rape? Of course not. So what do we do? Write a petition? He’s not listening. Go on a march? He’s not listening and he’s far away. Go on a march in Iraq? The whistles would not be blowing long. No jolly bandwagon here. So what do we do? Nothing? By the tenets of our own laws, silence equals consent.
Maybe Bush is greedy. Maybe Bush is atoning for what his father failed to finish. I don’t know. I dislike this man’s environmental policies, and I mistrust his links to oil interests. But I cannot be sorry that the abuse of Iraquis by Saddam’s regime is over, and if the war is what it took to stop it, well, OK, though I would prefer a peaceful method of achieving the same end. I am glad of the message being sent out, that the powerful must be accountable. Hopefully, with so much information being presented across the globe, opinion will grow more informed, the pitfalls of doing anything for money exposed. Saddam would not be there if we hadn’t supported him, sold him weapons, backing, expertise, played the game. There’s something, surely, to be learned from this.
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