[sweetliberty]

I think there is a big difference in following orders and being a slave.

[nicmarlo]

True; I'm just trying to think in the most altruistic sense, a devil's advocate, in my own mind, to justify why it is I don't (and, as it appears, many others do not) begrudge him so passionately for his role in Saddam's regime. (There had to be a point in his life, as there is in everyone's, when you make a choice to "go" with someone you know is bad, evil, and by doing so, you will be complicit, at the very least by doing so.)

Stated another way, if I would be hired at a company, just a little person, and work my way up, over time, I would realize this is a "bad company," unethical, immoral practices. Now, if I aspire to higher levels within that corporation, then, with the knowledge I have accumulated along the way, I am aware of what I'm getting into. Is that not wrong for me to strive to "get at the top of the ladder" in that company rather than stay "a peasant" where I will not become a part of murders? Did Baghdad Bob really have no choice, early on, to slither away into obscurity....attracting little attention from Saddam (if he became involved, of course, as a "little person")?