Don't get fooled again

It's the standard fallback position. "Things may be going to hell in Iraq, but...

...the intelligence about WMD was completely wrong, but...

...democracy is hard work, but..."

Blah, blah, blah.

The punchline is often the same: "At least Saddam Hussein is gone."

Remember Dick Cheney's frequent punchline from the 2004 campaign?

Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, today, in Iraq.

Well, to quote Pete Townsend, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

BBC, November 27, 2005:

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said that human rights abuses in Iraq today are as bad as those during the rule of Saddam Hussein.

In an interview with the UK's Observer newspaper, Mr Allawi said that Iraqis were being tortured and killed by secret police in secret bunkers....

"People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse," Mr Allawi told the newspaper.

"It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam.

"These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam Hussein, and now we are seeing the same things."

You may have missed the news earlier this week, but US troops found a secret prison inside an Iraqi interior ministry department. They found 170 "apparently abused captives."

Line: "At least Saddam is gone."

Response: "Don't get fooled again."