I disagree. Before the war, Iraqis faced a danger just as grave as the insurgents who are murdering them now: a brutal dictator with a history of torturing and murdering his own people. In other words, the Iraqi people faced a grave danger from the Iraqi government before the war. There is no question that Saddam tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens. Whether or not he tortured and killed more Iraqis than the insurgents have murdered during the current war isn't all that relevant in my book.
Absolutely no way. Pre war Iraq was civil and FAR less violent, there weren't bombs going off in local markets killing 40, 50 and 100 people, students weren't getting kidnapped, etc... Yes, Saddam was doing what saddam does, but only to those who threaten his power which were no where near the 50K-100K reported dead since the war.
As a citizen of Iraq, you could walk the streets and go to work and school with out fear as long as you didn;t get in the way of Saddam by challanging his power, something ordinary citizens don;t usually do. They are concerned with just living and prospering, they can;t do that now becuase they are getting threaten at ever corner from insurgents.
It's a very poor comparison: Saddam rule vs. insurgent violence.
We made a bigger mess because of our irresponsible handling of this war.
