csua.org/u/5ae -> sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/16/BAGG13O8P51.DTL
To the rest of the country, the Bay Area is an island of radicalism, as fierce and out-of-touch as any Christian Coalition zealot. But what is also true is that the ferocity that gave birth in the past year to protest marches and anti-war organizations serves a continuing, crucial purpose. It ensures that, despite months of spin and photo ops, there are voices reminding us of Bushs original rationale for the immediate invasion of Iraq, without waiting for international support: There was imminent danger from weapons of mass destruction. Thats why the reaction to Saddam Husseins capture might be a bit more subdued here than in other places. Its kind of a diversion, said Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, a nuclear disarmament advocacy group based in the East Bay. There is enormous relief and satisfaction in seeing television footage of Saddam so helpless and pathetic in his rat hole. His capture means, finally, a measure of justice for all the people he imprisoned, killed and tortured. There is something hopeful, too, in knowing that all his millions of dollars couldnt save him from a life of hot dogs and Mars bars as he dashed from one dilapidated farm house to another. No matter what you think about the war, the world is better off with Saddam locked away in prison, reduced to a scared, ragged old man, utterly alone. So while capturing Saddam is good and welcome news, it hardly is the triumphant vindication for invasion that the Bush administration wants to portray. This wasnt what the war was supposed to be about, said Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, a human rights organization based in San Francisco. She just returned from 10 days in Iraq and then New York, where she spoke with members of the United Nations Security Council. Gloating over Husseins capture doesnt make the situation over there any prettier. And the international community is saying, The United States got itself into this mess, were not going to send our troops in there to die, too. If we can take Bush at his word, then Saddams capture should mark the beginning of the wars end. We feared nuclear weapons, Bush said, even if Iraq didnt have an actual weapon yet, because Saddam was such a madman. He was so intent on destroying the United States, we were told, that he eventually would find a way to build something capable of mass destruction.
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