The article isn't by Aaronovitch though, Eloethan and it is a riposte to the Owen Jones article, which in my view was equally sneering about the people who believed that Saddam's reign of terror had gone on long enough and that something had to be done. Why is the fate of the Marsh Arabs being airbrushed from history? Why do people not talk about the numbers of dead under the Saddam, at least one million, by the most conservative estimates.
I agree Anno that the alleged WMD and Al Qaida presence were not valid reasons, but surely there was a humanitarian case?
I am not remotely defending the conduct of the aftermath of the war, which was ill thought through and badly managed.
I hear lots of people saying that Iraq was more stable under Saddam, but at what cost? Does stability ever justify a brutal dictatorship?