Why did we bother?
Reader comment on article: A Strongman for Iraq?

Submitted by Glenn Klotz (United States), May 5, 2003 at 13:42

If what your suggesting is that we just replace 1 dictator with another then I strongly disagree. .. I think putting another Mubarak or King Hussein in power would just create 1 more Arab dictatorship that is friendly to us but in the end will use terror and repression to hold Iraq together. The result will be too make us look like hypocrites and aggressors that only cared about getting control of the oil and settling scores with Saddam etc. Freedom is tricky and implicit in that freedom is the freedom to make the wrong choices but, anything else at this juncture will be a half-measure and after all the crowing about how were going to free these poor people etc. We must not deny these people what we proclaimed to the whole world was their God given right. As Bush said, freedom is messy. Let's have a little more faith in these people to figure their way forward. In the end the exercise is for them, not us, to figure out what freedom is about and if we try to do it for them or impose what we think they should have on them it will FAIL. The implications of that kind of failure will be a disaster for us. If they are going to fail, let them fail on their own if the regime they pick turns out to be as bad as the last 1. If worse comes to worst, we can always go back in if neccessary; God Forbid.

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