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" Bush did not allege a current massacre in Iraq as a reason for invasion."

From his State of The Union, Jan 28,2003:

"The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.

Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained: by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape.

If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."

Sounds like mass murder to me.And it continued until just before the war began. From Sunspot.org, June 9,2003

" SALMAN PAK, Iraq - As survivors desperate for news of missing relatives looked on, a big yellow backhoe methodically cut a trench in the sandy dirt, bringing up two more bodies yesterday.

It was a small recovery for a hot morning's work, but it did not deter Sheik Khadim Fartousi, leader of an Islamic charity, who told reporters that they were standing on a mass grave - the site where some of the last executions of political prisoners of Saddam Hussein's regime took place.

Fartousi said four busloads of political prisoners were brought to this area near the infamous Salman Pak training camp and chemical weapons facility and executed in April, only five days before U.S. forces took nearby Baghdad. Information about the executions came from witnesses and former employees of the Iraqi intelligence service, he said."

"The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.

Bush cites a massacre from the 80's, not a current massacre.

"Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained: by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape."

Ongoing torture, but of how many? Bush doesn't say. Many, many countries use torture, including our allies in the region, I'll bet. But Bush did not allege mass murder here.

As to preventing ongoing massacres, Bush would have a better case invading the Congo.

If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."

Agree, but greater evil operates in the Congo.

But for stopping an enemy with the proven will and ability to acquire WMD, hence threatening the US, invading Iraq seems reasonable to me.