And, I bet that the first time that our new allies, the liberated Iraqis, protest what we do as a nation, we will turn on them for using the very freedoms we gave them.
There's the point of this whole exercise. Saddam Hussein is evil. His regime must go. By your own admission (war having started already making "No Iraq War" posters sort of pointless, IMO), the Iraqis will be "liberated" by the coalition forces and able to use "the very freedoms we gave them."
(Sorta like the French. ;) Sorta like us, whom the French aided during the American Revolution. -- Being a francophile, I know that "french" fries are actually Belgian therefore no crisis of conscience when I hit McD's ... not literally hit it... but I digress...)
I have no doubt that the Iraqi people are capable of governing themselves in a way they see fit, financed with the oil riches they possess, once given the chance. Michigan has a large Arab-American population, and many Iraqi ex-patriates are vocal in their concern for their relatives, but also in their resolve that Saddam must go and that the Iraqis could never have ousted him alone. They cannot understand why the French and the Germans think that maintaining the status quo is a good thing, when they know the repression and terror that everyday citizens face in Iraq.
I think the Iraqi people have suffered far too long from Saddam's tyranny. I think the Baa'th Party largely criminal. I wish that the United States could effectively attend to every evil dictator, every practicer of genocide, every human rights-violating government, but it can't. However, it can depose the Iraqi regime which deserves to be deposed on the basis of its human rights violations alone, but which is also said to be a threat to our nation's security. As Farkel pointed out, the "non-existent Scuds" were fired in the opening hours of the war. This makes me surmise that there may be, just MAY be, "non-existent weapons of mass destruction" still lying about. And I'll be very interested to see if that alleged training camp for terrorists is a reality, too. The question is: even with an unprecedented number of journalists allowed unprecedented access to troop operations, will their published accounts be believed if the attitude of many in the States and around the globe is that what's in the papers is 90% propaganda, 9.9% fact? (Were those the figures? I can't read back far enough to tell...)
outnfree (who SINCERELY wishes Saddam had disarmed willingly and gone into exile)