Dan Savage is apparently doing brisk business selling “ITMFA” (Impeach the Mother Fucker Already) merchandise these days. (With profit, it should be noted, going to the ACLU.)
But just to keep things in perspective, if only because my cat died today and I’m in a cranky fucking mood, here’s what Dan Savage had to say back in October of 2002 about (a) The Mother Fucker (or at least, his administration), and (b) many of the same people who are presumably now purchasing “ITMFA” chotchkes:
While the American left is content to see an Iraqi dictator terrorizing the Iraqi people, the Bushies in D.C. are not. “We do not intend to put American lives at risk to replace one dictator with another,” Dick Cheney recently told reporters. For those of you who were too busy making papier-mâché puppets of George W. Bush last week to read the papers, you may have missed this page-one statement in last Friday’s New York Times: “The White House is developing a detailed plan, modeled on the postwar occupation of Japan, to install an American-led military government in Iraq if the United States topples Saddam Hussein.”
–snip–
But wait! Taking out Saddam means dropping bombs, and dropping bombs only creates more terrorists!
That’s the lefty argument du jour, and a lot of squish-brains are falling for it, but it’s not an argument that the historical record supports. The United States dropped a hell of a lot of bombs on Serbia, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, and Italy. If dropping bombs creates terrorists, where are all the German terrorists? Or the Italian terrorists? Or the Vietnamese terrorists?
–snip–
In the meantime, invading and rebuilding Iraq will not only free the Iraqi people, it will also make the Saudis aware of the consequences they face if they continue to oppress their own people while exporting terrorism and terrorists. The War on Iraq will make it clear to our friends and enemies in the Middle East (and elsewhere) that we mean business: Free your people, reform your societies, liberalize, and democratize… or we’re going to come over there, remove you from power, free your people, and reform your societies for ourselves.
Post-9/11, post-Bali, what other choice do we have?
To echo what Duncan said, I’m always glad to welcome a fellow traveller aboard, but I guess maybe I missed the profuse apologies for that “squish-brain” business.