How to convince someone that removing Saddam was a good idea

We live in strange times, don't we, that we even have to do this?

Who would have thought that a nation that has always sought to liberate millions from tyranny would one day question its own intentions in Iraq.

How did we get this way? How did we go from selflessly sacrificing American lives to bring freedom to complete strangers to believing that we would launch a war for oil?

The next time someone tells you that Bush misled you into a war, resist the urge to bark an expletive.

Take a deep breath challenge their grasp of history--remind them of America's sacrifices in the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. Confront them with facts: Why would a $11 trillion economy spend $200 billion and a thousand lives on Iraq, which can produce barely $15 billion worth of oil per year?

If they insist that the war to remove Saddam was unnecessary, educate them about the alternative.

Containment? Continue sanctions and inspections? Be prepared to receive glowing approval for this strategy then remind them that containment killed a million Iraqis between 1991 and 2003, left Saddam and his sons firmly in power, while it rewarded Bin Laden with thousands of jihadists.

Inform critics that in his 'Letter to America' a month after 9/11, Bin Laden dedicated the attacks to the suffering of the Iraqi people and to avenge the placement of infidel troops on Saudi soil--troops that were positioned there to enforce the containment of Saddam.

Lift sanctions? Allow Saddam to get out of the box to reconstruct another million-man army, acquire WMDs and invade Kuwait? Tell them that in his last court appearance, Saddam insisted that Kuwait belonged to Iraq.

Finally, explain that Bush inherited an Iraq policy that desperately needed a major overhaul. America's success in the War on Terror necessitated the winning of hearts and minds of Muslims and this was not possible as long as Washington supported the draconian sanctions against innocent Iraqis.

Admit freely that although this administration has made a mess out of marketing the war and blundered quite a bit post-Saddam, they did not mislead the American people about the consequences of not removing the dictator when he was at his weakest.

Remind them that the end goal of sanctions was...regime change--capturing or killing one of world's most evil human beings.