Enough is enough...
Mood:  irritated
Topic: ramblings
You know what irritates me? People who are using the recent tsunami in SE Asia as a means to vent their frustrations about the war in Iraq. They say things like, "It is very sad that mother nature has unleashed something that has taken so many innocent lives. What is even worse is President Bush sending troops to Iraq for his own selfish reasons so him and his cronies can get richer while more and more American soldiers die. Now more than ever we need to tell Bush we're tired of it and we want..." yada yada yada

Certainly my heart goes out to all of those who have been affected by this tsunami. There are literally millions of people who will never be the same now because of that one fateful day in December. What irritates me to the bone, though, is people comparing "mother nature" to the "mother !#(*&" (as they would call the man in the White House). I understand that many, if not all, of these people who are so against the war are just clouded with their deep seeded hatred for Bush, republicans and general, and anything involving conflict. But to try to compare a natural disaster to a decision to the removal of a brutal dictator just irks me.

Even the loss of life inflicted by the tsunami is comparable to Saddam's executions. One article in particular lists Saddam's death toll at 61,000 (found by polling Iraq's population) but they said that when Saddam was removed from power, upwards of 300,000 were found in mass graves, whereas human rights officials estimate that the total could be upwards of 500,000 to 1 million. If that is the case, then Saddam would be "worse" than the tsunami when it comes to loss of life(considering it would be hard to find anyone who agrees that this many people "should" have died from either horror).

So did Saddam kill this many people or not? Did he order the execution of even 30,000 people? If he did, would it not make sense that his removal would be a good thing? Perhaps "democracy in the middle east" is a far fetched hope, but shouldn't we at least give the Iraqi people a chance to decide for themselves whether they want a dictator or a free country? Soldiers returning from Iraq will tell you that the people of Iraq are happy...there are some terrorists and insurgents who are not happy (and never will be unless the US withers and dies) but those who were under Saddam's reign are no longer...

So, please, if you disagree with the war in Iraq, fine, just say it. If you don't like the fact that he is replubican or Christian or rich or white or whatever, fine. You can disagree with his economic policies or his public speaking abilities, but please don't go so far as to say what Bush has done is worse than the tsunami (or worse than Saddam, as some claim). There is just no basis of truth behind that.