Bush Trying To Change Rationale For War

WashPost -- While members of the human rights community are elated at Hussein's removal, they remain nonetheless skeptical of the administration's motivations and rationale. First, was the threat posed to the United States and its allies imminent? And second, did the present-day human rights situation justify the ultimate remedy of war, which has killed a couple hundred Americans and thousands of Iraqis?

Joe Stork, Washington director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East/North Africa division, said the discovery of mass graves alone justifies the claims about Hussein's regime made by his and other groups. But if there were a time for war, based solely on the human rights concern, it would have been 15 years ago, when the genocide was occurring, rather than now, critics on the left say.

"Look, the attention to human rights is long overdue," Stork said. "But to suggest that the U.S. has been pushing to hold Iraq accountable for human rights abuses while the rest of the world watches ... it's hard to find words for that kind of hubris. It almost defies words."