  urlLink Thrilled Watching: CNN When I came downstairs after waking up, I was floored when my grandmother said, "They've captured Saddam.
" My mouth dropped; I was in total shock. I replied, "But are they sure that it's him? " She assured me that they were positive; they had run DNA tests shortly after his capture. Another shocking thing about this already shocking scenario is that he didn't put up a fight, when he had sworn all along that he would.
Obviously he was outnumbered by our 4th Infantry Devision (THOSE ARE OUR BOYS!!! FROM TEXAS!!! :-D). Still, I am suprised that he didn't shoot himself rather than be handed over to the authorities. I am thrilled for the Iraqi people; this is indeed a victory against terrorism, and perhaps now--maybe not immediately, but in the long run--some stability will develop in the region. As Bush so eloquently put it (THAT'S a first; eloquence from our President? ), "He will face justice he denied to millions.
" I truly hope, though, that we turn him over to the Iraqi people; in the end, that would be the most just scenario. All that being said, let me make something perfectly clear: simply because we've captured Saddam, does not mean that the way in which we more or less unilaterally went to war was acceptable. I still to this day do not approve of the way we went in; I have always been very wary of U.S. unilateral military intervention. It is NOT an appropriate way to handle foreign policy. What right does the U.S. and Great Britain have to conduct their own personal foreign policy? And futhermore--simply because you were not in favor of the war effort does not mean that you can't be happy that Saddam is captured; I thought that Lieberman's statement against Dean today was quite nasty and unfounded; what did he mean by "Dean in the end was hoping that Saddam was still in power"?
Again, I will reiterate: simply because Dean did not approve of the means by which we went to war, does not give Lieberman the right to assume that those against the war effort were in favor of Saddam. THAT is an argument that Bush was making--that whole "you are either with us or you are for the terrorists" bull shit.
We need to bear in mind through this entire process that democracy is NOT an export commodity~ simply because it works well here does not constitute a simple transplant of that system elsewhere. While I feel (and would sincerely hope) that our government's intentions were genuine in the matter of freeing the Iraqi people, it is important to remember that "going at it on your own" has consequences.
We can't pragmatically expect the Iraqis to have a newly written constitution in place by the spring, either--these things take time. That being said, we most definitely need to make plans to remove our troops from the region sooner rather than later; the Iraqi people will only tolerate our presence for so long. While I have provided my 2 cents on the matter, I do feel that celebration is most definitely in order. 
