Reply #65: I assure you

[Columbia]

I am not as ignorant as that young private.

As for being against the war, as I have mentioned before, I share the same questions and condemnations you do. However, I assume you have not had to chance to speak to actual Iraqi people. Rhetoric matters very little when someone tells you of the time he was jailed and tortured for years for dissent or shows you pictures of friends and family members who "dissappeared" due to Saddam. How do you look this person in the eyes and tell them we shouldn't have come and he should still be suffering under the rule of Saddam? It makes a difference when many Iraqis tell you that freedom was worth the collateral damage and are hopeful for a future of peace after so many years of war. I don't think the war will be judged on what we say in these times, but 5, 10 years down the road and beyond and whether the Iraqi people are enjoying true self-government and if peace and stability spreads throughout the middle-east.