My Aisling

Saddam Lied Because We Made Him Do It

Wow ... Stanley Meisler, author of "United Nations: The First Fifty Years," writes in today's LA Times, in an article entitled, American Policy Gave Hussein Reason to Deceive that we gave Saddam no choice but to act as he did.

Our policy compelled that torturing degenerate to: act as if he had a WMD arsenal; harass UN inspectors; bar entry to certain buildings; and move trucks around in a shell game.

But wait, it gets better. In George the Elder's administration, a speech was given at the UN during which the US said that, "Saddam is discredited and cannot be redeemed. His leadership will never be accepted by the world community and, therefore, Iraqis will pay the price while he remains in office. All possible sanctions will be maintained until he is gone. Any easing of sanctions will be considered only when there is a new government." Mr. Meisler maintains that this statement "upset" the mission of our UN ambassador. Seems the emotional politicians once again undermined the logical, well-meaning diplomats.

My, how could one possibly take such a stand as the removal of the head of government? This is diplomacy afterall. Everyone must win. No one must feel badly when the end of the day comes. If you say Saddam must leave, then we must understand that he will see no incentive but to rape, torture, and murder thousands upon thousands of people. He will have no choice but to allow his sons to have their pick of Iraqi women on their wedding day, to slowly lower their enemies into plastic shredding machines. I mean, Mr. Politician, can't you see that you have forced him to do these things??!!???

Mr. Meisler goes on to document the culpability of the Clinton and Bush the Younger administrations. In every instance, Saddam was never given an honorable, diplomatic manner in which to have sanctions removed and to stay in power.

The premise to Mr. Meisler's position, then, is that the only manner in which Saddam would have behaved himself in accordance with international requirements is if we simply ignored his behavior to date. Mr. Meisler has constructed for himself a world without retributive justice.

Anyone at any time can behave in any manner whatsoever no matter how egregiously as long as they stop when they are told to stop. Anyone can do anything out of sight, hidden, to the harm and detriment of anyone provided that they stop when discovered. And if we as the international community think that we will seek retribution of any kind, then we must accept that the aggressor will continue to aggress ... like a butler who simply must butle.

How utterly simplistic.