Posted by
Josh Todd on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 8:44:20 PM
Critics of President George W. Bush are quick to blame him for the Iraq War. Others still find it easy to lay the burden upon the current president's father, because he--all alone, we're told--failed to finish the job the first time. Then there are those on the right who might blame Bill Clinton for the war because he neglected the Iraq situation during his tenure. Likewise, many of us on the right charge the United Nations, citing their negligent lack of resolve in dealing with dire situations.
Certainly it may be simplistic to say so, but perhaps the blame truly lies with one party, after all. I know those who fancy themselves the most intellectual in the world will undoubtedly scoff at such, so they would say, elementary conclusion; however, the mole hill is not always a mountain.
He who should bear the blame for the Iraq War is Saddam Hussein. Not the Bushes. Not Cllinton. Not the UN--in spite of how each might have played a key role in the events that led to the conflict.
Sadly, we too often forget about the true villains. In our age, we have made it taboo to blame any one person, instead opting to spread culpability like oxygen: anyone and everyone is responsible for anything and everything. Many of us in the West who think this way commonly believe this line of thinking is somehow smart. Not so.
It was Saddam Hussein who exterminated his own citizens; who started a war with Iran; who invaded Kuwait; who thumbed his nose at the UN; and who misled the entire world in 2003.
And so it was--and he was brought to justice last Friday, just as he should have been. Saddam Hussein's execution is the culmination of justice for millions of people. My uncle went to war because of Saddam Hussein, as did I (and hundreds of thousands of other international troops). We now have justice. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Persians have died because of Saddam Hussein. They and their loved ones now have some justice.
As I read the news Friday, I couldn't help but ask myself if the way I felt then was the way my grandparents' generation felt when news of Adolph Hitler's demise hit the US. The dictator who caused them so much grief met his end. And now so has my generation's dictator.
Then I thought of the men and women who served in Vietnam. Their tyrrant was never brought to justice, either forcibly or under pressure. So many of them have made great efforts to correct the wrongs of the past with Iraq veterans. Now, the Vietnam vets not only got to welcome us home properly, but they also got to see some justice from our labors.
So concludes the war against Saddam Hussein--a war that lasted a decade and a half. Millions of psychological wounds can now begin to heal. The man responsible, more than anyone else, for the Iraq War is dead. Such is the end of that sad chapter of human history, and the war that remains is a war for a new, post-Saddam, world.