My nephew served in Iraq for seven months in the initial stage and lived in Saddam Hussein's Palaces. There was no shortage of baby food and medicine it was just that Saddam kept it from the needs of people so he could propagate his lie that the sanction enforced by the West caused their problems of starvation and death by disease. The present death toll is caused by radical Islam that Fellow_ human supports as the justifiable rejection of the Wests attempt to teach democracy.

I have copies of UN suvelliance intelligence reports showing Saddam removed factories and industrial areas only months before the entry of the coalition. They hads factories producing WOMD as maintained by UN weapons inspecters, it is they were removed completely. They had the capacity to produce gas and dirty bombs which they had previously used.

Whao! This was bound to be a controversial but interesting one.

I am heartened to see the number of people displaying some sense and concern here, great to see!

Duec, good points.

spendocrat - Great Stuff! This is bloody hilarious, you should be writing articles!

Regarding the 'was it worth it to invade Iraq' question on all our lips, its a hard one.

O, and about celebrities - the 'actual' topic.
I think anyone can say whatever the hell they want, why not. Free speech etc etc.

And the other thing, is this author is pretty sort on arguments, he basically resorts to the lamest and most immature form of debate - personal attack. Just like some of our respondants here....:)

Sure, there was massive repression and suffering under Saddam, and getting rid of him is a noble goal. But clearly, what it has been replaced with is no better. Is it? I dont know, who knows?

It's a really hard question to answer and Frankly who can tell? I mean if you were there now and lost your family to a terrorist's bomb, or dare I say, to a US soldier's bullet (as happens), you would be pretty damn unhappy to say the least.

By the same token if you had your family members locked up, tortured and killed under Saddam you would not be too pleased either!

So which situation is worse? I dont think you can start resorting to numbers, X hundred thousand killed here, X hunderd there. I dont think you can measure human suffering in numbers.

All I can say is it was a bloody mess before, and it sure is now.

O, and regarding the 'actual' topic - celebs:

I think anyone can say whatever the hell they want, why not, free speech etc etc..

This author sure presents a weak argument, resorting to the lamest and most immature form of 'debate' - personal attack. Just like some of our respondants here.... :)

It would be interesting to know whether Ben or those supporting him, have ever been involved in combat. Poor Ben, surely has lost the plot and is totally blinded by his ideology, which is common with ideologists and a negative problem that we face.

Most posters have covered the article very well, what amazes me is that Ben, a supporter of the religious rights actions, never mentions the other places that are being destroyed by despots in African countries and around the world, that Bush and Co have failed to take any action on,.

Bush said, in June 2003, “I am driven with a mission from god. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan”. And I did, and then god would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq”. And I did. “ And now, again I feel gods words coming to me. Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the middle east”. And by god, I'm gonna do it”.

Doesn't that tell you of the mental capacity of the man.

If the invaders left Iraq, sure there would be civil strife, but I doubt that it would involve as much destruction and murder, compared to what has been heaped upon them by Bush and Co,.

One thing we can be sure of, is that the coalition will not only spread the terrorists around the world, but they cannot win in Iraq until they have at least 85% of the people on their side. That won't happen as long as the US continues to bomb everything in sight, to try and flush out a few people.

Another case of religious mayhem heaped upon the world.

Oh good to see the facts still coming......the facts….

100 000 dead..... Hmmmm latest UN report has 24,000, still tragic... How many are terrorist victims?

600 000 babies since sanctions...lets not mention that after Gulf war 2 it was found that Saddam had deny Iraqis the medicines.
What I do know another mass grave of 300 000 found just recently. What number does that come to now?

GXB saying “god told me” Of course someone remembering a translation from someone with English not as the main language and now the BBC start to back away from this. Plastic turkey anyone?

Oh the US furiously arming the Iraqis? If I remember correctly SBS (yes that left wing TV station) showed a program showing the French and Germanys mainly provided the biological and chemical support and the Russians the main military hardware. US provided some light helicopters for agriculture but they were converted …Mmmmm yep must be the US fault?

Blah blah....

Again Plastic Turkey anyone…..

The Big Fish,
It is easy to recognise those that support the lies propogated by the opponents of our free society. One only wonders if the anti-involvement propagandist in Afganistan and Iraq are really secret agents for the radical elements of Islam. They speak more highly of Islam that the equal right to life of other people in those countries. Islamic hatred of the free peoples is their agenda.

No one would now be killed in Iraq if radical Sunni Muslims stopped their slaughter of the new democratic Iraqi Government.

Philio,

I dont know if you count me as one "those that support the lies propogated by the opponents of our free society".
But its pretty likely that Im a secret agent for radical Islam. Hmmm, yeah, yeah, that's probably likely! Yeah definitely!
Given I have red hair, born and bread Aussie, never been in a Mosque, belong to another religion.

Yep, I hope that the radical Islamists take over the world, that would really personally help me alot!!

May I just comment on this thinking that anyone who criticises anything that our government or military does is somehow opposed to "our free society" or is unpatriotic.
I am deeply patriotic about our country, my loyalty is to my country and not to Jonny W Howard or any leader. I dont see a contradiction between disagreement with leaders ON BEHALF OF MY COUNTRY because I care about it, and feeling patriotic about my country. That's actually what democracy is about - loyalty to your country rather than one party or leader.