Springfield,IL 1980:
”So I figure the best thing we can do right now is to get on in there and get him outta there!” Those were the words my surgeon used to sum up my condition the day I went to hospital with abdominal pain. I had acute appendicitis. I could have taken the view that the appendix is in no way connected to the heart, the lungs, the brain, and therefore of no real threat to my general health. That would be the kind of blinkered thinking that we saw on the streets of London and other major cities yesterday. However, the abdominal pain had reached such intensity that there was no decision to be made. Of course I didn't enjoy being prodded, poked, injected, tube shoved up nose and down throat, anaesthetised, cut open, stitched up, deprived of food & shower for 5 days. Small price to pay. The fact is that I had only about two hours left before unpleasant things would start to happen, and without surgery I would almost certainly have died – do your own Google search for peritonitis.
I find it almost unbelievable that so many people, including large segments of the media, fail to see the writing on the wall. One “newspaper”, The Daily Mirror, published this picture of a young Iraqi boy on its front page.
FFS!!!! Do they REALLY believe that this young boy’s best interests lie with a continuation of Saddam’s vile regime? I wonder how many people on the streets of London have ever sat down and talked to Iraqis about what it’s like to live with Saddam in control. How many of us here have done that?
I am not disdainful of the marchers, but I feel they are uninformed to say the least. Most of them have no clue about the extent of Saddam’s tyranny. Here is a man who has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people – either directly by means of nerve gas, or indirectly by starvation owing to the way he has reacted to sanctions imposed as a result of his own hostility. Many have been tortured and executed. But oh! The Daily Mirror feels that it’s in everyone’s best interests for Saddam to remain in power. 
The anti-war protesters think that millions will die in an armed conflict. I disagree, but the Public has a short memory. In 1991 when Saddam was tackled, there were bombs, there were missiles... but I never heard of any incidents involving “millions of civilian casualties”. One cruise missile did go astray, and seven civilians died. This and other incidents like it are unfortunate, but that is war. These casualties are far fewer than the numbers that will die if Saddam remains in power. There was an unfortunate “friendly fire” incident, and about 30 service personnel died when their dining area was hit by a Scud missile.
I said the Public has a short memory. They do not remember 1991, and it seems some struggle to recall Sept. 11th, 2001. One could take the view that this happened in America, and was not connected with the rest of the world in any way.
The Powell speech and other texts are free for all to see and do not need to be repeated here. The objective of al qaeda is to kill as many Americans and other westerners as possible. We will not lessen their resolve by appeasement, or by not going to war with Iraq. Saddam and OBL (if he is still alive) have their differences, but that would not stop them from doing business together in the fullness of time. Maybe Saddam hates OBL, but he hates us more.
So I figure the best thing we can do right now is to get on in there and get him outta there!
