We freed twenty million people from a tyrant, and from a dynasty that looked like it would have made Saddam's regime seem mild by comparison. Is this nothing?

I am flabbergasted that this fact is routinely shunted aside...

I certainly don't think it can be considered nothing, and perhaps in time might stand as a mitigating factor in criticism of the war.

But for me it becomes a secondary issue because freeing the people was not a primary reason for invading Iraq. We supported the war, first and foremost, because we were told Iraq was making and possibly distributing WMD.

Had the Admin said "We are going into Iraq to free an oppressed people," without mention of WMD, I wonder how much enthusiasm would have been raised for the adventure. My guess is Saddam and his sons would still be sitting pretty.

For those who supported the war--and I was one--I think the mistreatment of the Iraqi population was essentially a non-issue when compared the the matter of WMD. Freeing Iraqis from opression was more of a fringe benefit--and not a particularly important one, either--than a reason to go to war. It was also an attempt to stake out some moral highground, to make it appear that we weren't just doing this for ourselves, but for the benefit of others as well. While it may be true that the war might give Iraq a chance for a better future, this consideration was insignificant in deciding whether or not to go to war, especially when placed beside the question of how best to protect America (a question which, imho, was perhaps not well answered by an invasion of Iraq).

Given all this, to now try to shift the focus of the conflict from WMD to Iraqi emancipation seems somewhat disingenuous.

To put it crudely: if all Bush had, prior to the war, were stories of the downtrodden Iraqi population, I don't think the war would have happened. Iraqi well-being was just nowhere near important enough to us, on it's own, to send Americans into combat. It might be nice to think that we could place so much value on relieving the suffering of others, but let's face it...as a people, we don't.

In any case, trying to sell the war now as having been fought, in any substantial measure, for the benefit of the Iraqi people just doesn't seem to fly.