He looks like he couldn't beat up a chicken.
What you are ignoring is that if Jacque Chiraq et al had their way, he wouldn't look like he couldn't beat up a chicken -- he'd be strutting around in his uniform, while his sons raped and pillaged and filled up more graves, all the while thumbing his nose at UN inspectors and anyone else who tried to influence his behavior.
He'd still be sending cash payments to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers.
He'd still be claiming Kuwait was part of Iraq (and who could forget the environmental catastrophe he unleashed, far worse than anything Bush has done, when he set fire to the oil wells in 1991).
He'd still be free of any punishment for using chemical weapons on a minority ethnic group within the boundaries of his own country. They may not have been "his own people", a phrase you used in a post yesterday to excuse his conduct, but what if the Governors of Alabama and Mississippi had gassed African Americans who were protesting in the South instead of turning fire hoses on them? Would that have been ok with you?
By all estimates the man was responsible for tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of deaths in the past quarter century. Much like Nazi Germany which flouted repeated League of Nations resolutions during its rearmament, he refused to comply with UN resolutions designed to ensure that he did not develop weapons. He kicked out inspectors, then hid things from them when they returned (which, by the way, only happened to begin with due to the leadership shown by President Bush).
It may not concern you in this world of ever more horrific weapons and terrorist tactics that such a man was on the loose. But it did concern a whole bunch of other people, and rightly so. The fact that he looks today like he couldn't beat up a chicken, much less continue the murderous rampage he was on for decades, is due more than anything else to President Bush and Prime Minister Blair.
You can't see that, but I am confident that history will. |
