Libertarian Librarian

That is the impression I took from a recent post over at tc's blog. The post is interesting and well-written, but the analogy is... bizarre.

Here's the gist (and yes, thoughts of the War in Iraq are what brought this story to tc's mind): Loner kid with harelip is being picked on by jocks (tc joining in to try and be popular). Loner kid finally fights back, whacks tc in the nose. tc freaks and starts strangling the kid. tc feels bad for the rest of his life for picking on this poor kid, and then makes a comparison of our attack on Iraq. Concluding with this: "I don't think that beating up on somebody who didn't deserve it is something that we will be able to proud of."

Now, more than likely tc didn't mean the whole thing as a direct analogy, but nonetheless it leaves the impression that Saddam (or perhaps al-Qaeda. Maybe both-- doesn't really matter) was that harelipped kid-- a poor, sad soul who had been picked on and terrorized by America and the West for a long time and finally just lashed out in fear and pain. He didn't deserve the retribution the US brought down on his head.

It's Ward Churchill repackaged-- we had it coming for how we treated Muslim countries in the past. And our reaction to 9/11, the terrorist sects of Islam, and the absolute intransigence of Saddam was "beating up someone who didn't deserve it." Saddam has somehow become the victim, we the bad guys.

I generally disagree with tc's views, but I usually give him credit for having a credible reason for believing as he does-- but this I just can't wrap my head around. Argue that Iraq was the wrong target, argue that the WMD threat was exaggerated, argue that nation building is an inherently impossible task, argue that the post-invasion planning was woefully inadequate-- but don't try to convince me that Saddam was just a poor old soul trying to run his country who was ruthlessly and unprovokedly attacked by the imperialist warmongers of the Bush Administration.

The man was a ruthless dictator who murdered hundres of thousands of his fellow countrymen. He regularly and consistently had his armed forces take pot shots at US and British fighter planes enforcing the UN "no fly" zones. He regularly and consistently misdirected and lied to the UN weapons inspectors. He stole BILLIONS of dollars meant to help the Iraqi men, women and children.

There have been worse monster than Saddam Hussein in history, but not all that many.

Labels: Politics