>>Bush will be remembered as the man who said "No more dictators" and set us down a path. A long, difficult path. I'm not going to judge it so quickly this time.
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>Was that Bush's justification for the invasion of Iraq? "Saddam is a dictator so we're taking him out. That's it, no more dictators." Was that what he said?
Essentially.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_DoctrineOf course, going after every dictator in the world poses a bit of an economic problem.
Because our industries interests in Iraq, our foreign policy strategy, and the ability to get public support against Saddam all aligned, it was made realistically possible, unlike Americas willingness to handle Darfur, for example.
Maybe there were worse humanitarian situations to address.
But Americans really don't care about Africa.
If the Administration tried to sell us on Darfur, noone would have been on board.
So Iraq was a unique opportunity. We went for it.