It's time for a gentle reminder . . .

How does leaving Saddam in power promote peace and justice in Iraq?

"There will be civilian deaths in the war. Saddam has killed two million people. There are families here in this country who lost 20 or 30 people on one day in a gas attack by Saddam Hussein, little girl.

And I will tell you this: Yes civilians will die. My cousins will die. Maybe. Allah forbid.

But here is a certainty that you do not understand in your simplistic Nickelodeon diplomacy, is that you are guaranteed to have civilians die under Saddam.

So now you try again to answer my question without playing the ping-pong: How does leaving Saddam in power promote peace and justice in Iraq?"
KVI radio station, Seattle, March 6, 2003

Partial transcript here.

Download the audio here.

Let's try not to go all lily-livered, here, shall we?

We are doing the right thing.

Nobody said it would be easy.

Americans, like the rest of the world, are humans. Humans are fallible. Mistakes (and worse) will be made. Reality will interject itself. This is no way diminishes the cause of right, nor does it undermine necessity. When we fall down, we'll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep going.

For all you doubting Thomases out there: Quit acting like a bunch of goddamn schoolgirls and grow the hell up.