Shane wrote:
I'd say yes, they're better off now than they were before. After all, they're not living under a dictatorship anymore right?
It's also important to remember that as a leader in the international community the US and others have an obligation to promote democratic values worldwide. Granted it didn't work out how it was supposed to in that the government didn't have a decent transition plan in place but compared to what's going on in Syria? Iraq's definitely better off now.
It'd be interesting to see if the people would've managed to get rid of Saddam on their own in the whole "Arab Spring" affair. Also let's also ask ourselves what the dynamic would be if Iraq was still under Saddam's control and they decided to ally with Iran for some strange reason...
As Duke said let's hope Iraq will remain at the very least friendly to the west if they won't be an ally.
To play some devil's advocate, exchanging a dictatorship for foreign rule isn't exactly a wanted "improvement." If the people want us to come in and takeover, fine. But as far as I knew, this was not the case and we took the initiative to invade even though the people did not necessarily want it.
As to this notion of "an obligation to promote democratic values worldwide," I think that is highly debatable. Where does such an obligation come from? I'd hardly call democracy perfect. And as far as the Middle East is concerned, it's not exactly the type of government model they like. Democracy's only work in so far as the people are educated and participate. If you try to force democracy on people who are neither educated nor willing to participate, it's clearly not going to work. Maybe down the road, but not immediately.
As to the question of the Arab Spring, it's a big what if. However, I would presume it was going to happen eventually that the people would overthrow Saddam. He would have died eventually, too. He was 69 when he was finally executed. I think the war, if anything, was a chance for us to seize power and try to dictate the affairs of the Middle East. Though, I only think it ***** off Iran and others more so than made them happy.
Again, mostly playing devil's advocate here, but I do have a real qualm with this notion of "...an obligation to promote democratic values worldwide." Show me where it says that we have said obligation in the Constitution. Actually, don't bother. You won't find it there.