Yesterday, Human Rights Watch said that the Iraq War was not justified on humanitarian grounds:

While Saddam Hussein had an atrocious human rights record and life has improved for Iraqis since his ouster, his worst actions occurred long before the war, the advocacy group said in its annual report. It said there was no ongoing or imminent mass killing in Iraq when the conflict began.

Oh, well his worst was behind him, so that nullifies humanitarian intervention. Right. Got it.

Hmm...so here's the Human Rights Watch report on Iraq for 2002:

The Iraqi government continued to commit widespread and gross human rights violations, including the extensive use of the death penalty and the extrajudicial execution of prisoners, the forced expulsion of ethnic minorities from government-controlled areas in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk and elsewhere, the arbitrary arrest of suspected political opponents and members of their families, and the torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

Yeah, but he was mellowing, right? I mean, it's not like he was slaughtering entire villages anymore, so why not just leave him be?

Here's Amnesty International's report for the same year:

Scores of people, including possible prisoners of conscience and armed forces officers suspected of planning to overthrow the government, were executed. Scores of suspected anti-government opponents, including people suspected of having contacts with opposition groups in exile, were arrested. The fate and whereabouts of most of those arrested, including those detained in previous years, remained unknown. Several people were given lengthy prison terms after grossly unfair trials before special courts. Torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners and detainees were systematic.

Torture of political prisoners was systematic. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Go read the entire report. Amnesty Internation documents verified reports of people being amputated, having their tongues cut out, and having their toenails pulled out.

But this isn't anything to get your feathers ruffled over, right? I mean, it's not something you'd actually want to go forcibly stop. Better to just hang back and wait for them to change their behavior. I mean, it's gotten better over the past two or three decades, so maybe in another 2 or 3, when Udai and Qusay take over, they'll reform all the way and stop all the torture and executions.

Oh, and we shouldn't be concerned with a little thing called justice, either. I mean, the statute of limitations on genocide is, what?

Six, seven years?

Yeah, force was completely unjustified. We should have just left that poor old man and his boys alone.