If it is correct to say the means may not justify the end, how is it we are at war? Is it worth 13,000 Iraqi lives and almost 600 Americans to justify our invasion in order to overthrow a brutal dictator? Those who square the means with the end argue that Saddam had a history of terror and violence. Even though in years he evidently desisted from his ordinary practice, based on the history he was potentially dangerous to do further harm in the future and should be put to rest now; and, after all, even it he never carried out the potential, surely his sons, even more brutal, would have; besides, statute of limitations does not run out for murderers. Thus, the rationale for preemptive strike. Yet did not the nation condemn Janet Reno for the disaster at Waco, though unproven who was responsible for the raging fires? Was not the nation saying that, regardless of the months of caution and the goal to save hundreds of innocent people brainwashed, the Feds had been wrong in their dastardly deed? So why isn’t the nation outraged that to get to Saddam the US forces had to kill and be killed, to maim and be maimed?
It must have something to do with the original intent — now explained away — that expressly avoided regime change for its own sake but was coupled with the necessary rationale that Iraq was in collusion with al Qaeda and also possessed WMD and therefore posed a threat to this nation. Many fell back on the argument that had the allies in World War II had had their act together, they could have thwarted Hitler in 1936 before he was able to build up his arsenal. This argument, however, omits the fact that there were no superpowers then that could have readily defeated him, and because we had abandoned the League of Nations, there was no effective coalition for counteraction. They also argued that what was good for Kosovo was good for Iraq; again omitting that the contemporary reign of terror on an independent province caused a mass exodus of refugees.
In the main, the American majority is modifying the means of war because in the end the Iraqis will be better off and this nation will have, implausibly, earned a friend in the Islamic world and thus the US will be safer. I’m not sure the families of our dead heroes join in that satisfaction of such a flimsy end.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: March 28, 2004.