My thoughts on Iraq

I'm one of those Americans who believe Saddam is better off in a prison cell than in one of his "palaces". No, Saddam wasn't directly aligned w/ Bin Laden, though they had similar goals and had allies in common (al-Zarqawi being the most infamous and malignant of the lot). The main reason I think it was the right, in fact, a moral imperative, to arrest his sociopathic arse is 20th Century European history. Mass graves and use of WMD against his own people and his enemies are eerily reminiscent of another European world leader, born in Austria, who later became the Chancellor of Germany.

The policy of the U.S. government, dating all the way back to the Clinton Administration, was regime change in Iraq. Europe loved Clinton because he focused far more on talk than action, and managed to accomplish almost nothing in his 8 years in office. I can see where some may be angry at President Bush for exposing the irrelevance of France, Germany, the U.N., and Russia, and their inexcusable theft from the Iraqi people of several thousand millions of pounds/euros/dollars or whatever currency you prefer. I can see where Blair's support for these actions may cause concern. As for me, I'm just thankful.

Can you imagine Libya giving up their WMD program, the peaceful protests in Lebanon and the Ukraine that led to peaceful regime change, the quieting of other parts of the globe had President Bush not led the coalition in this? Events of that magnitude do not just "happen". They have causes, and I think there's a very strong case for saying that the proximate cause is President Bush's actions in Iraq.

While I do disagree with some of President Bush's policies, it's not so much his foreign policy, which he's handled as well as any principled man can. He's even managed to get some begrudging support from the left-leaning Der Spiegel magazine in Germany, who said that they had opposed Reagan's stance on the Cold War and how, 20 years later, they see that he's right, and wondered if they might not do the same with Bush's Iraq policy. It's aspects of his domestic policy that concern me. But that's another topic for another time.