Roadblogging: Coffee?
By Via Think Progress:
O’Reilly: The truth of the matter is our correspondents at Fox News can’t go out for a cup of coffee in Baghdad.
Rice: Bill, that’s tough. It’s tough. But what — would they have wanted to have gone out for a cup of coffee when Saddam Hussein was in power?
Yes. The answer is yes. Under Saddam a Western reporter could get a cup of coffee in Baghdad without running the chance of being killed.
Saddam Hussein provided a brutal security apparatus that killed his political opponents without regard for the law. This security apparatus had the virtue of providing a certain degree of order in Iraqi society. Believe it or not, car bombs didn’t regularly kill hundreds of people in the Baghdad of Saddam Hussein. Basic life can go on, even in a brutal authoritarian regime. Bad government is better than no government.
If you plan to destroy a state, please consider replacing it with something.