IT IS INCUMBENT UPON CRITICS TO OFFER BETTER SOLUTIONS.

A slum in Baghdad. I think my friend was stationed across the street.

Ben Landis’ article in Adbusters talks about Liberal writers, especially Christopher Hitchens, who believe that war was the only way to unseat Saddam. I’m not convinced that Landis is offering a better solution. This is as close as he comes: He writes: “But why is a military offensive the holy grail of options? In their rush to see the sheriff run Saddam out of town, many liberal hawks overlooked Bush’s refusal to heed international opinion and exhaust diplomatic channels.”

Of course the military intervention in Iraq should have been sanctioned by the rest of the world. I’d go so far as to say that any major military effort should be made as UN soldiers in blue helmets. One of the problems with blue helmets is that they are not allowed to fire unless fired upon and cannot consequently push out insurgency as easily. It is incredibly frustrating to feel that the US trained, supported and orchestrated the dictatorship in Iraq and then went to war on them for political and economic control. But if the situation were not as such, and there was a dictator who sprung up independently, wouldn’t a military and economic power with the resources to unseat him have the responsibility to do so? Clearly that’s not a consistent policy in the United States, but should it be? Is military intervention ever appropriate? Or does violence always beget more violence and solve nothing? What is the appropriate course of action now that so much damage has been done? What’s an appropriate exit strategy for international armed forces in Iraq so that Iraqi people can rebuild Iraq themselves?

Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq From the same source, on elections in Iraq Kurdish Media on Talabani, The same source, on women and secular government

Also, as part of my job I talk to young people in Iraq and around the world about their lives. Here's a clip of the TV show we make to actually televise conversations with kids all over the world. Recently it was Kent State Ohio to Baghdad.