"In terms of what kind of economic system they wish to establish, as you point out, the Ba'athist Party was a socialist party. I think it's very hard to imagine any strong support in this country for a return to that economic system, which has left the country really flat on its back, and which does not really provide a model for getting the kind of vibrant private sector which I think most Iraqis now realize is a sine qua non for a stable economy and stable economic growth. So if they choose socialism, that will be their business. My guess is that's not going to happen." ~ Amb. Paul Bremer: Briefing on Coalition Post-war Reconstruction and Stabilization Efforts, June 12, 2003
Committee of the Missing (Saddam's victims may number eight million)
Newsweek via MSNBC.com ^ | 5/8/03 | Rod Nordland
Committee of the Missing
One local institution in Baghdad is up and running, documenting thousands of dead, and giving some small comfort to the living. It’s serious work, by serious men
May 8 — The raised living room of the posh villa in Baghdad’s Kadhimiyah neighborhood has a splendid view of the Tigris, date palms on the opposite bank, narrow wooden boats plying against the lazy current. But the view is through a picture window that has been broken out, jagged shards of glass framing the scene.
IN THE SPACIOUS COURTYARD under the window, a procession of people file in, reading the lists posted on the insides of the garden walls. It’s a strangely quiet throng, although from time to time a woman wails or a man shouts in pain. The names on the lists: those known to have been executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Under the window, a knot of people gathers to get the attention of the Committee for Missing Persons, convened now in that living room. One man holds up three black-and-white photos of young men. He doesn’t say anything. A woman named Saad Jaber Abadi clutches a picture of her brother, Atta, to her chest. “He was a brave son of Iraq, an athlete in international competitions, a runner. They just told us he’s been hanged, but we never got the body.”
Attempts to get the "international left" to acknowledge that which is good and condemn that which is evil are so frustrating because the moral foundation of leftism is evil, by any rational measure. Acceptance of human slavery in service to the state is not for the common good, but instead serves a much greater evil.
One need only taste once of the fruits of Marxism to know the vile nature of the tree that bears it, nourished by the blood of its tens of millions of victims. To accept Marxism as "social justice" is to feed yet another lie and pay homage to the King of Lies. Those who do so forfeit their souls.
As a famous fictional character once aptly observed: "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
Thus, attempts to bring reason to those who have abandoned it are noble, but ultimately, unlikely to succeed.