Hentoff - A genuine liberal

Hentoff - A genuine liberal and genuine libertarian, Nat Hentoff, comments about why he didn't march with the anti-war protesters this time:

I did not cite "weapons of mass destruction." Nor do I believe Saddam Hussein is a direct threat to this country, any more than the creators of the mass graves in the Balkans were, or the Taliban. And as has been evident for a long time, I am no admirer of George W. Bush.

The United Nations? Did the inspectors go into the prisons and the torture chambers? Would they have, if given more time? Did they interview the Mukhabarat, Saddam's dreaded secret police?

An Iraqi in Detroit wanted to send a message to the anti-war protesters: "If you want to protest that it's not OK to send your kids to fight, that's OK. But please don't claim to speak for the Iraqis."

The article catalogues some of the same Hussein atrocities that the rest of the world - or the part of it that isn't run by Josh Bartlett - has become familiar with. Some of them turn the stomach:

The UN is crucial for feeding people and trying to deal with such plagues as AIDS; but if you had been in a Hussein torture chamber, would you, even in a state of delirium, hope for rescue from the UN Security Council?

From Amnesty International, for whom human rights are not just a slogan, on Iraq: "Common methods of physical torture included electric shocks or cigarette burns to various parts of the body, pulling out fingernails, rape. . . . Two men, Zaher al-Zuhairi and Fares Kadhem Akia, reportedly had their tongues cut out for slandering the president by members of Feda'iyye Saddam, a militia created in 1994. The amputations took place in a public square in Diwaniya City, south of Baghdad."

As John Burns of The New York Times wrote in January: "History may judge that the stronger case [for an American-led invasion] . . . was the one that needed no [forbidden arms] inspectors to confirm: that Saddam Hussein, in his 23 years in power, plunged this country into a bloodbath of medieval proportions, and exported some of that terror to his neighbors."

As I wrote in my "Death Factory" piece yesterday, I've had about enough of the anti-Bush movement's specious claims. The last time I went to an anti-Bush rally, I was a passive observer. Next time, I'm speaking up, asking the questions.

I've had enough.

Fade - The anti-Bush movement had a bad day in Boston yesterday.

I'll be going to the Wednesday ritual demonstration on the Lake Street Bridge to see what attendance is like.

Anyone wanna meet under a "Liberate Iraq" sign? Strength in numbers, y'know...

Posted by Mitch at April 6, 2003 09:25 AM