One thing I used to admire about Liberals was that they stood up for the rights of people. I was there with them in the 1980’s for South African Civil rights. What has happened? Was it all political? Are they only for human rights when it suits their agenda?

Can the same not be said for Conservatives? There are ongoing slaughters of thousands of people in various parts of the world - where are their champions of any political stripe? It seems to me that, sadly, politics and economics play much greater roles than humanitarianism in world affairs.

And regarding Iraq - the US went in there so the US has little choice but to try to make things work (though I sometimes wonder if Iraq might be better off if all the US troops were pulled out immediately and a cheque for a few billion left on the desk).

But even if the goal of bringing freedom and democray to Iraq is realized, was it worth the cost to the US (and to Iraq)? Thousands of US soldiers killed, many thousands more left shattered for the rest of their lives, so many families devastated, many more thousands of Iraqis killed and injured, billions of dollars spent, US standing in the world brought down drastically...

You have to agree that removing Saddam from power was only the first step on a long, terrible road. If you remove a tumour from a patient but the patient dies, was it worth it?