Escape from Saddam

Im so disappointed we didn't get to have a discussion in class about "Escape from Saddam."  What really got me thinking in this book, was can this be this be used as a justification for US invasion of Iraq, and I will say right off the bat, that in and of itself, it does not.  BUT  there are some points that I believe bring a very strong argument which could then be combined with others as justifications, though once again, the counter arguments can be just as strong (and believe me I understand if you are just as sick of these wishy-washy posts as I am).

What I had hoped people would get out of this reading is that Saddam was acting as a dictator and was committing genocide on a large scale.  To add to this point, in class we would have been watching clips from these youtube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JojVRTbauIU&feature=related

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-cxt99M_uU

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyhTI7ZpnlE 

All of these are documentaries on the mass murder that Saddams regime was committing. Though some of these are better than others, and all are pretty much full length films, they show strong imagery of what was happening under his rule.  I know a lot of people in our class were shocked and appalled by the reading "Five years of my Life," and rightfully so, but after watching these films (all three in a row, and then sitting around thoroughly depressed and angry) I do not believe that what was happening at Guantanamo compares to what was happening to these people (though both are wrong).

In "Escape from Saddam" at the end (this being a section that was not assigned) Sarmed talks about the US invasion of Iraq and says that though he is happy to see Saddams reign come to an end, he knows the the US had ulterior motives for their invasion. I believe it would be nieve to say that we invaded solely  on the grounds of protecting human rights.  Through class discussions we can see correlations between our involvement in Iraq and national economics.

I had planned to make an argument comparing our involvement in WWII to this subject, but after further consideration have decided that it is one which would best be suited for a class discussion or paper, and not a 200 word blog...A brief point, look at US involvement in any other war (or maybe just a particular one) and it can be seen that the US does not go into wars solely on the grounds of human rights protection, but when all goes according to plan and we win and withdraw, thats what the media and the public allow to be believed.  But the second these things don't go as planned, motives get questioned and the truth comes out...and this is starting to sound like a conspiracy theory so im gonna stop.