HE was a long term eventual threat if he would have lived that long but ..
even then. However, Saddam to some extent brought things down on himself
regardless ..

The question(s) is is why did the media outlets and Bush contrive to make
him more of a threat than he was - why did they want war that bad ?? And why
do we who were duped, not demand an accounting of this?

NTLDR

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a1butv4ujcg719bd6ci2tgcc21ei2ldl7h@4ax.com...
|
| From The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/16/03:
| http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/7500452.htm
|
| Capture still does not justify Iraq war
|
| By Don Harrison
|
|
| 'I hope they hang him," a Philadelphia woman told TV interviewers,
| "after all he's done to us."
|
| Saddam Hussein is, indeed, a vile monster who tyrannized and
| terrorized Iraq for many years.
|
| But Saddam has done nothing to us.
|
| A majority of Americans seem to believe he had something to do with
| 9/11 (maybe they confuse him with Osama bin Laden), but there is
| little evidence that he ever had much substantive connection with
| al-Qaeda.
|
| No Iraqis were involved in the 9/11 atrocities - or, for that matter,
| any attacks on Americans before we invaded their country.
|
| So, yes, let's be glad Saddam will be brought to justice, but because
| he's a tyrant, not because he ever did anything directly to us.
|
| His capture does not, in any way, justify our ill-advised, ill-timed,
| ill-planned act of aggression.
|
| Besides wreaking death and destruction and alienating the rest of the
| world, this preemptive strike against a nonexistent threat distracted
| us from the real threat: al-Qaeda.
|
| President Bush and cronies claim the occupation of Iraq is part of our
| war against terror, but it's actually had an opposite effect.
|
| Afghanistan, a true haven for terrorism, remains in turmoil; the
| Taliban is resurgent and Osama bin Laden remains at large.
|
| He may be on the run, as Saddam was, but it's not likely he's hiding
| in a spider hole.
|
| Hoodwinking the American public into believing Saddam posed a threat
| to the United States was deliberate - and apparently successful.
|
| Even if those weapons of mass destruction exist, there's no way a
| Third World backwater like Iraq could have anywhere near the arsenal
| we do, let alone the capacity to deliver those weapons halfway across
| the world.
|
| The rebuilding of Iraq is being handicapped by violence, a
| deteriorating infrastructure, some questionable corporate actions of
| our no-bid contractors, and lack of participation by other nations.
|
| Small wonder.
|
| Arrogantly and petulantly, we have insulted important allies that
| wouldn't go along with us in the Iraq invasion.
|
| France, Germany, Russia, Canada - they're in a bind, too.
|
| Middle East stability - if that's not a contradiction in terms - is in
| everyone's best interests.
|
| They should participate in rebuilding Iraq, and would, if we'd let
| them.
|
| But understandably, they're reluctant to fall in lockstep behind
| American direction, and besides, we're "punishing" them for what we
| consider their disloyalty by locking them out of the rebuilding
| process.
|
| So we go it alone.
|
| And now that Saddam Hussein is in our custody, our attitude is even
| more in-your-face.
|
| I fear that this administration will orchestrate a show trial like
| nothing ever seen, making the Middle East and other nations no less
| hostile to us.
|
| Saddam Hussein is no longer at large.
|
| But do you feel any safer?
|
| __________________________________________________________
|
| Are the Bushies suggesting that we go after all tinhorn dictators in
| the world who are oppressing their people? Of course not. Which ones
| do we hit and which don't we hit. They're workin' on it now. Get those
| troops ready for more killing.
|
| Harry
|