Iraq / USA

When told that Mr. Schroeder believed Mr. Bush's contract decision might violate international law, president Bush responded with sarcasm: "International law? I better call my lawyer."

Yesterday, he was enthusiastically promoting the death penalty for Saddam to ABC News:

"I think he ought to receive the ultimate penalty ... for what he has done to his people."

"He is a torturer, a murderer, and they had rape rooms, and this is a disgusting tyrant who deserves justice, the ultimate justice."

Really, the man is the president of the United States, he should learn some self control!!!

I have an old Dale Carnegie tape "How to win friends and influence people" he could borrow if he wants...



On another note:

Military historian Sir John Keegan writes an interesting article Why the West once supported the tyrant and I agree with some of what he says (gasp!).

It's not possible to reduce history to "good or evil" for any party, showing a picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam and saying "see, the Americans were complicit" is just a tad too simple for me.

I had mixed feelings about Saddam over the years: one the one hand a tyrant and horrific suppressor of his opponents, on the other hand women had so much freedom here compared to the other middle eastern countries, people were well educated and fed, standards of health were high. On some fronts, the society was thriving.

This does not mean I am an apologist for his crimes against humanity, I just realise that it's not all black and white. There are many shades of gray here.

Jumping up and down now and calling him the fount of all evil is a childish way of looking at things. Jumping up and down and calling the American government at the time of his worst atrocities evil and co-conspirators is just as childish.

Some balance is sorely needed here, on both sides of this issue...