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“Sunday's capture of Saddam Hussein made it a great day — a great day for empty rhetoric and meaningless posturing by politicians and journalists.”
Harry Browne.
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“The war in Iraq is more the result of America’s agenda than Hussein’s. The violence in Iraq (multiple bombings since Hussein’s capture) is a result of Washington’s terrible miscalculations. The threat from terrorism (Pakistan’s leader nearly assassinated) has been made worse by Bush policies. The structure of American alliances has been needlessly undermined (hence James Baker’s mission). America’s extreme belligerence is imitated elsewhere (Sharon’s faith in ‘overwhelming force’), making the world far more dangerous. These issues must not be blotted out in the glare of the media celebration of Saddam Hussein’s capture. That he was caught in a hole, obviously unrelated to the guerrilla resistance, is a turning point in nothing that matters now: not in restoring order to Iraq, not in rebuilding structures of international law, not in thwarting terrorism, not in stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, not in reconciling the West and the world of Islam.”
James Carroll.
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“I kind of feel the terrorists have won by making me write this, since it ought to be obvious to any idiot, but yes, I’m quite pleased that a monstrous mass murderer (though a former ally to Messrs. Reagan, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) will be brought to justice and will not be able to threaten anyone ever again. However, just as obviously, it does little to justify what remains a dishonest, self-destructive, hubristic adventure that continues to undermine our security and the stability of the region with each passing day, but there it is.”
-- Eric Alterman.
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“Was the capture of Saddam Hussein a major victory for the United States? It was certainly a victory in the extended Iraq war. It was a victory for President Bush over the man who plotted to kill his father. It was a victory for the U.S. military and its intelligence service -- especially for the lieutenant and the corporal who figured out how to find him. It was a victory for the Republican Party’s plan to keep a stranglehold on American politics. But was it, as the president told us, a victory in the ‘war on terrorism’?”
“Despite the media hoopla and the White House spin doctors, it was not.”
-- Andrew Greeley.
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“So Saddam Hussein, who hasn’t broken any American laws, will stand trial under the supervision of President Bush, who has pretty much shelved the U.S. Constitution.”
-- Joe Sobran.
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See links and more at Saddamfreude Watch.