My letter to The Metro, Philadelphia

This is the text of the letter by me, published in the
Philadelphia Metro newspaper, dated Aug 5 2005
They removed the reference to Vietnam.
--
This letter is in response to the comparison between
Bush and Saddam Hussein that offended a reader(August
2).
Americans seem to assume that being a democracy
assures that their perspective would be right in all
wars. In their perspective, Saddam was a psychotic mad
man killing Kurds and Shiites. But from an Iraqi
perspective Bush's attack on Fallujah was as psychotic
a overreaction. The difference was only in the number
of people killed. What Americans may assume is
"legitimate" collateral damage, would be mass murder
to Iraqis (and the rest of the world).
Lying to attack a country, killing 10000 innocent
people - most of them women and children, making sure
all rebuilding contracts go to American companies and
building 14 permanent bases in that country - these
are not acts of the "psychotic mad man"; they are the
actions of a democratically elected "leader of the
free world".
Being a democracy does provide immunity from mass
murder on own soil - it does not prevent crimes
against the rest of humanity.