The Democrat and the Dictator

So it is finally over, Saddam Hussein has been found guilty and has been sentenced to death by hanging. George Bush must see this as vindication of his decision to invade Iraq and rid it of the despot and free its people from Saddam's tyranny. Good as far as it goes.

But the manner in which this result was brought about raises a big issue. Is USA or its President qualified enough to decide who is a dictator to be dethroned and which country deserves freedom from its ruler and whether USA has the sole authority to invade that country with false pretenses of Weapons of Mass Destruction and cause irrepairable damage to its people and assets and resources?

The real reason USA invaded Iraq may be to ensure its interests in a key area of the world with huge oil rserves are safeguarded and to ensure it has control over a vital resource required to run daily life in USA and drive up the profits of the Big Oil Companies. Did Bush take the opposition in Iraq to Saddam as an opportunity and trump up false accusations of WMD to invade Iraq? He also might have used the 9/11 attack by Al Qaeda and concocted an imaginary link between Saddam and Al Qaeda to buttress his arguments to invade Iraq.

And the consequences of this mis-guided, mis-informed and mis-managed invasion are there for all to see today- destruction of the Iraqi society, countless dead and displaced, loss of property and a near civil war with no end in sight to the misery visited upon the common man, woman and child.

But the intersting and worrying question for the world is how far a licence can be given to a purportedly democratic country and its leader (however poweful they are) to decide about the regime-change in other countries and manufacture reasons to invade it and spoil it. If this licence is granted to USA and exercised by it by choice and selection, is it not akin to turning a great Democracy to a form of Dictatorship.

In the great Hindu Epic 'Mahabharata' while delivering the 'Bhagavat Gita' Lord Krishna says 'whenever there is Adharma (oppression of good) in any Era, I will come to the world to destroy it and establish Dharma (Good) again'-Rough translation only. Is USA and its President whoever he/she is to be vested with this power to establish Good and Justice? Are they to act in the name of God to do so? It may be okay for a God to become a Man to do his deeds but is it okay for a Man to become God and take on these powers?

If Good is to become Evil to defeat Evil, is it a victory for Good or Evil?