Curly, at some point, it must be realized in talking with a tyrant like Saddam that your are dealing with evil. Continuing to talk after realizing this becomes simple appeasement. Appeasement of evil is impossible; it only imboldens them. What is required then is direct action. A true leader will, however reluctantly, accept at some point that need for action, and will act. This is What President Bush did. That is leadership.
"This man was the elected leader of a free nation, one that was attacked without warning, its citizens killed in a cold and calculated way. In responding to that attack, a nation allied with the perpatrators was identified. The leader of that other nation was a maniacal tyrant, who's resume included genocide (of its own citizens as well as those of neighboring contries), starting wars of agreesion with its neighbors, and repressing despotically its own people. That tyrant routinely used torture and murder to supress dissent, and was intent on building an arsenal of terror weapons, in the hopes of dominating the region. Other nations had tried to reason with the tyrant, to appease his appetite for conquest. This only served to imbolden the tyrant further.
The elected leader of the free nation choose to act, to confront the evil and end once and for all the threat to peace and stability the tyrant represented. Who is this elected leader? Who was the Tyrant?"
1941 or 2001, a tyrant is a tyrant is a tyrant. Evil is evil. Ultimately, the choice will come down to appeasement or action. As for the price of rebuilding Iraq, it is probably small compared with the cost of the Marshal Plan. If in the end it results in the first truly democratic nation in the Middle East, a beacon of hope to the millions of down trodden citizens in the other nations of the region, than it will be worth every penny.
