Many people think the United States was justified in its military action in Iraq because of Saddam’s brutal legacy. While there are questions as to the time period in which this took place and whether or not the situation was the same in the years after the Gulf War (when we were no longer allies with Saddam) as they were before the Gulf War (when there was a clear violation of human rights), it is clear, Saddam was not the most compassionate of dictators. While I do not think it justifies the war, I think this is one of the best arguments one could have made for it.
Let’s look at a similar situation. There is a country which is brutally killing its own people daily. The death camps often employ the most perverse forms of torture as the means of execution (people have their limbs torn off, their heads crushed in, and this is all done in a slow but methodological fashion). Then, in their death, as in their life, the people find their human dignity mocked, not only having no proper burial, but finding the very value of their lives questioned and used to justify their execution. The numbers of the dead are staggering, making what happened under Saddam’s regime look small in comparison.
This country is the United States, and the executions happen daily at its abortion mills.
Now let’s say there is a country which does not like United States. Let’s also say they fear the United States might attack them, and so they decide to have a pre-emptive strike on the United States, claiming they are doing so to help ensure world peace. Let’s say the strike was so shocking, that they were able to capture Washington, D.C. and place their own people in charge of the nation. Let’s also say they also claim they are justified in their attack on the United States and their continued presence in the land because they learned of the brutal number of deaths which occurred under the old regime, turning up pictures and pictures of aborted babies. Would you call them a liberator? Would you accept their justification – that they 1) took out a threat to their national security and by doing so 2) they removed a brutal regime which has led to the death of millions?
Let’s say this other country is Iran.
What would your reaction be?
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