Scary and racist thought.
At the worst estimates, we've been killing 15,000 Iraqi per year (or, rather, are responsible for the deaths of those Iraqi). We failed (so far) to keep the country under control.
Hussein was in power for what, ~30 years. At the same rate, he would have killed 450,000 people. In fact, between Iran adventure, Quwait adventure, suppressing of Kurds and Shia, purges and so on he killed way more (is responsible for death of way more). At least 1 million in wars. But... He succesded where we're failing - he kept Iraq out of the claws of fundamentalists.
So, could it be that Iraq simply cannot be kept out of trouble by killing less than 30,000 people a year?
One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. One thug is a criminal, multiple thugs is a friendly government (or at least a tool of geopolitics).
God damn Bush for commititing us to this mess. At least it was not our fault before. Now it is. This smacks of former communists converted to neocons - the same faith in perfectibility of human nature.
