Friday, December 02, 2005

Not Ever Immoral

I won't try to summarize the excellent article by Victor Hanson. Just read it for all he has to say about what we are achieving by winning in Iraq.

But I will say that the pretensions of the Left to oppose this war on moral grounds has always struck me as deeply wrong. I think the war was necessary for our security but I concede it is at least a debatable point. But trying to argue that freeing the Iraqi people from Saddam was immoral strikes me as immoral itself. How can freeing people from the likes of Saddam and his butcher boys and thugs be anything but a good thing? Says Hanson:

Saddam’s trial will remind the world of his butchery. Despite all the ankle-biting by human-rights groups about proper jurisprudence, the Iraqis will try him and convict him much more quickly than the Europeans will do the same to Milosevic (not to mention the other killers still loose like Gen. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic), posing the question: What is the real morality — trying a mass murderer and having him pay for his crimes, or engaging in legal niceties for years while the ghosts of his victims cry for justice?

Debate the cost to us? Sure. The wisdom of invading? Go ahead. But argue that our invasion was immoral and I just won't listen to you. For I doubt you have the ability to even judge morality if you can even begin to argue that keeping Saddam in power was moral.