MORAL EQUIVALENCY

Ralph Peters lists some bad stuff done by Saddam’s regime:

* Used their own people as human shields in countless instances.

* Engaged in acts of genocide against Shi’a Muslims in the south of Iraq.

* Forced Iraqi civilians to take up arms at gunpoint.

* Executed Iraqi civilians on the spot for any suspicion of disloyalty or even indifference.

* Cut off food and water to Shi’a Muslim urban populations.

* Used the most sacred shrines of Iraq’s Shi’as as military strongpoints and arms caches.

* Used hospitals as military staging areas, fighting positions and arms storage depots.

* Took Iraqi family members, including children, hostage.

* Executed allied POWs in cold blood, while abusing others.

* Prevented the International Red Cross or Red Crescent from visiting allied soldiers taken as POWs.

* Fought in civilian clothes, in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War.

* Employed false surrenders to lure allied troops into ambushes, in violation of the same.

* Committed multiple acts of terrorism against Iraqi civilians and coalition forces.

* Forced unwilling soldiers to attack allied forces by executing some and driving the others forward at machine-gun point – far from patriotic resistance, this is the mass murder of Iraqis by Iraqis.

* Attempted to create an ecological and economic catastrophe in Iraq’s Shi’a and Kurdish regions by rigging oil fields for demolition.

* Attempted to prevent relief supplies from reaching Iraqi civilians.

* Welcomed and harbored terrorists from abroad.

* Took practical steps to prepare Iraqi troops for the use of chemical weapons against allied forces.

If only we’d given inspections more time. . .

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, Terrorism, , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.