Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech

 Alphabetical index (text)

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Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Opinion, Dec. 21.

I AGREE with Linda McQuaig that Saddam Hussein‘s capture is being seized as vindication for a war that most of the world continues to oppose. But if you imagine that the war actually had been fought to depose an evil tyrant, would it then be possible (as Tony Blair contends) to see it as morally justified?

What if it were the people of North America who had to pay the price for Saddam’s capture as the Iraqi people have? A foreign army invades in a massive “shock and awe” campaign, killing thousands of our civilians and maiming thousands more.

They do their best to hide our suffering from the outside world, not even bothering to count our dead. Anarchy ensues, with a complete breakdown of policing, the justice system, and all form of social bureaucracy and order.

Unemployment reaches more than 50 per cent. You learn that all our state-owned businesses, utilities and natural resources are to be privatized and sold to foreign interests.

Would you say it was all worth it to bring a tyrant to justice? Or would you think a foreign power was just capitalizing on and extending your misery to seek advantage for itself?

Michael Gaspar
Barrie