Let's take a cold, hard look at the daily life of the average Iraqi citizen.
Are they REALLY better off? Honestly?
And nobody's trying to defend Saddam with this, especially not me. The man is less than scum, and the sooner he's dead, the better. But I take issue with the statement that "we've" made the "average Iraqi's life much better than before."
A majority is STILL without electricty, running water (be it clean or dirty...and most if it's dirty) and ready access to medical care...three things they DID have before the war.
There are no more mass killings...but they seem to be blown to bits either by our bombs (Which is, thankfully, mostly over) or the bombs of the insurgents/terrorists who are supposedly trying to "help(?!?)" them. So at best, you can say there is less violent death on a large scale than before. Sure, the situations are different....but dead is dead...and a LOT of people are still ending up dead.
And the torture. Of course, "our" torture is nowhere near as bad as what was happening before the war. But it IS still torture, abuse and mistreatment. At best, we can say, "it's not as bad as it was under Saddam."
Is that REALLY the level of quality this whole operation was to be about over a year after primary conflict began AND ended? You have less people dying on a whole...but still large amounts violently dying on an almost daily basis. And you don't have Saddam's torture...you have torture that's not as bad. And as for water, electricty and medical care...well, that's still out the window for most of the country, too.
I don't know how much more I can lay this out. I am baffled by the go-to notion of "they're better off than they were before," because clearly they are NOT. Maybe they WILL be eventually. I hope to God they will be, and I still think "we" can make that happen...but right now? No, the average Iraqi citizen is NOT better off than they were before. Not by a long shot. And I am NOT blaming this all on our government or our troops...a lot of this, if not most, is the fault of the insurgents and terrorists disrupting the country. But those people are still fucking things up for the rest of the Iraqis just trying to survive, and making it VERY hard for them to do that very basic human function, and that's hardly "better off than they were before."
And as for the original question of this thread, I say OBL is "worse," just because his actions and words are more likely to get me and my family and friends and loved ones killed HERE in our own nation.
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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."
This message was edited by TheMojoPin on 6-30-04 @ 12:14 AM