The USA had a responsibility to depose Saddam Hussein

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator that oppressed the Iraqi people. By all accounts, he was hated by the population, and his crimes are not in question.

The USA had a *responsibility* to depose Hussein, if only because the USA has supported him for so many years, provided diplomatic support for him, and gave him access to weapons that threatened Iraqis and their neighbors. When the USA and the UN imposed sanctions on Iraq, this forced Iraqis to rely on Hussein even more for their daily survival. When Clinton bombed Iraq on a consistent basis for years, destroying their water supplies, polluting the atmosphere with DU weapons, and creating a humanitarian disaster, we gave ourselves the responsibility to correct a situation that we helped create.

The correct way to go about deposing Hussein was through the United Nations. Bush was clear that he was not going to follow what the UN decided, and France made clear it wasn't going to allow the UN to proceed with deposing Saddam Hussein. Both the USA and France had their own oil interests at stake - USA wanted the oil, and France wanted to maintain their lucrative contracts with Hussein. There is plenty of blame to go around.

I don't think it's even a question that the sanctions killed more Iraqis than the recent invasion, but of course the war isn't over yet.

Allowing Saddam Hussein to continue to terrorize Iraqis, with the tacit support and sometimes outright collaboration (as by the French and Russians) would have been a greater crime, in my opinion. This should have been done legally through the UN, and Bush, and the French government, should have to take the blame for putting their own political needs over that of the Iraqis.

The idea that the USA can collaborate with tyrants, then leave the people helpless to defend themselves against him, is immoral beyond belief. Saddam was our monster, and we had the responsibility to remove him from power. The best thing we can do now is get the UN to take over the rebuilding process.