He's Baaaaack... Dean: Iraqi standard of living worse now

Aside from some obvious pandering in which he allows that Saddam was not a nice boy, Dr. Dean seems to be in full blither mode again. Interesting too, seeing as his next big contest is in New Hampshire, where the license plates all read, "Live Free or Die." Although some may think such sentiments are just so much twaddle, there are actually people in this world who believe it better to be a poor freeman than a wealthy slave. And, at least for now, the people of Iraq have an opportunity to actually have a standard of living, rather than having to exist in a perpetual state of knowing that for one misspoken word against Saddam or his sons, they--or their children--could experience the sights and sounds of a Ba'athist torture chamber.

Whatever you might think about the necessity of going to war with Iraq, Dean's supposed critique based upon (unsubstantiated) claims of economic straits suffered by the population is ludicrous and could just have easily been made about post-war Germany and Japan. Iraq has the potential to have a good standard of living for all of its people. That potential only exists now that Saddam is gone.
posted by Terry at 10:18:00 AM