[Psycho_Bunny]

Ignoreing what you "would have done" for a moment, Matthew, allow me to suggest what you can do...

[skeeter]

Another supercilious left wing british journalist. Not exactly a scarce commodity.

[HassanBenSobar]

This guy needs to be introduced to some newly-liberated Iraqis and asked to explain again why it would be so good to have Saddam back in power.

[Ruth A.]

Could not read the enitre article. Anyone dancing that much, I have learned, does not have anything substansive to say.

[Billthedrill]

This means Saddam Hussein would still be in power, but given what we now know about the state of his armed forces, his grip might not have held for much longer.

And pigs might have taken wing at sunrise. His armed forces weren't keeping him in power, his armed thugs, secret police, and irregulars were. There is no reason whatever to assume that the situation would not simply have continued pretty much indefinitely, given that they had succeeded in doing so for 12 years after those armed forces were defeated. This has been the situation in North Korea for half a century, after all.

No, the fact of the matter is that the decision was a tough but simple one: did the deciders judge that the advantages of armed intervention to their countries outweigh the disadvantages? The advantages are legion, but some among many were the downfall of a proven invader of his neighbors, the cessation of known programs of weapons development, and the removal of a major state prop for terrorism targeted at the deciders' countries. The disadvantages were pointed out by many authors, and included the danger of promoting preventative warfare as a policy tool, the certainty of collateral damage in terms of lives and economies, and the expense and difficulty of a stabilizing occupation.

In my personal opinion the judgment was a sound one and the activities appropriate. There was at no point the possibility of unalloyed success, and it is disingenuous in the extreme for the left to make unalloyed success their benchmark for any intervention at all, as this author and others are doing today.

[alnick]

This means Saddam Hussein would still be in power, but given what we now know about the state of his armed forces, his grip might not have held for much longer.

Unbelievable.

[secretagent]

If he had resumed his massacres, the world could have debated the wisdom of threatening force on honest humanitarian grounds rather than trumped-up charges about WMD.

I'd have just emphasized that Saddam would resume his WMD programs, with or without sanctions, even if he didn't have WMD currently.

I would also emphasize that the sanctions abetted Saddam in a "slow massacre" of Iraqis, because of the PR value of blaming them on the US.

Lift the sanctions, and Saddam gets the WMD even if he doesn't have them now.

Don't lift the sanctions, and the oppression of Iraqis continues. Plus Saddam might get WMD anyway.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" and months, perhaps years, of blowing hot and cold on both sides would have resumed."

How the Democrats and the left can continue to ignore the mass graves of children(still holding their dolls )and prisons full of children as young as 8, is absolutely beyond comprehension.And then to actually long for the monster responsible to be reinstated,should frighten everyone.

[nothingnew]

If I had been Mark Steyn — but inhabited, etc. — I would have reflected that rude neoconservatism was what I did and I had better carry on doing it.

Oh man, I hope Mark writes a response article on this. I can't wait.

Parris writes like a junior in the high school newspaper...as if he really knows something. What a maroon.

FMCDH

[agrace]

And if I had been God, I would not have created Saddam.

Saddam made his own choices, he didn't have to be a cold-blooded murdering scum.

[JoeSchem]

Yet the bare question — What would I have done? — presents no difficulty at all. The ‘I’ in question being M. Parris, Times columnist and Another Voice in The Spectator, what I would have done is to write articles inveighing against the invasion of Iraq. I did. Question answered. ‘What would you have done?’ is an inchoate inquiry unless the ‘you’ is tied down. What I would have done if I were me is what I did do. What I would have done if I were Tony Blair is what Tony Blair did do. What my interrogator is probably after, however, is an answer to a question like, ‘If the decision were up to you, what would you have done?’

Dr. Irwin Corey replies:

"But, sir, you have totally forgotten that the aforesaid mention of the afterpart, when faced with the dichotomy of the opposite expository, generates an interrogatory whose answer must reside in the realm of that very inchoate state of which you speak.

"I rest my case."

[right wing]

This is one stupid article.

[DannyTN]

"And if I had been God, I would not have created Saddam. "

If he had been God, he wouldn't have created anybody with the potential for evil. He would remain alone in the universe, God only to himself.

[pragmatic_asian]

"International law would not have been violated,"

And he expected Saddam to honor the Geneva convention in fighting for his life? </sarcasm>

" swollen-headed neocons would not have gained sway, the yee-hah tendency in US foreign policy would have been restrained,"

Ad hominem attack. This says nothing about the merits of the policy.

" precedents for future unilateral regime-changes would not have been set,"

This precedent argument is so silly and full of logical holes. Countries are not children. They don't do things just because their 'friends' did something.

" Nato would be intact,"

When did it disband?

" the UN Security Council would not have been damaged,"

It wasn't damaged enough.

" America’s relationship with Europe would have remained good, and Britain would still be on speaking terms with our EU partners. "

Who wants a good relationship with the likes of them? In this instance the ad hominem attack is warranted.

" The multitudes killed by Saddam would still be dead, but this war has not resurrected them."

I guess if he expected Saddam to follow international law, he would probably expect him to stop killing, torturing innocents. Saddam's sons probably would've been worse consider their 'training'.

"If he had resumed his massacres, the world could have debated the wisdom of threatening force on honest humanitarian grounds rather than trumped-up charges about WMDs."

The world would've kept on debating. They didn't care when Saddam was slaughtering those hundreds of thousands in the first place, why would've they cared the second time around?

[Calvin Locke]

Matthew Parris is a political columnist of the Times.

Hah! Just like the NYTs. Giving lie to wannabe "paperboys".

M. Parris, failed expressor of readable ramblings.
M. Parris, failed moralist.
M. Parris, failed rational human being.