[Undertoad]

Yes, how dare I remark on foreign affairs without checking off Chomsky's checklist of the terrible horrors of American foreign affairs since the French and Indian Wars. Why, the US should simply stop whatever it is doing, and prepare to be repeatedly anally violated by every other nation on the earth for its various and sundry inhumanities.

If a government imposes democracy on another people against their wishes, are they not as bad as what they're trying to stop?

The [Canadian Iraqi ex-patriate] said his recent voyage to his family home in Basra was an eye-opener: There was no water, industrial buildings were collapsing from decay and Saddam's security services controlled every facet of life. "Everybody they are, believe me, against Saddam," the man said. "My family, I had a big family there, all of them are against Saddam.

"I said, 'Then why are you cheering him on the TV?' They said, 'Every day there is an event or something there, they knock door by door, take the people, the families, from houses to participate in this cheering, or election or whatever, by force.'

"If you are not going you are on the blacklist. If you are on the blacklist, your son or your daughter or your wife will disappear. Or you are going to lose your job. Iraq is the worst country in the Middle East."

If you want to pretend to care about these people, you're only fooling yourself.