During the last thirty years, many of the people of Iraq had been tortured, forced to relocate their families many times, arrested and murdered. Those who stood against Saddam Hussein were punished, in most cases by death, such as the 1988 gassing of Halabja, in which 5000 Kurds (his own people) perished (Sellar). All of this occurred under the orders of Saddam himself and we have not found, nor has he offered a sound justification for his actions.
             By the early 1980's, hundreds of thousands of citizens were exiled to Iran. Up to the spring of 2003, people were still being repressed, persecuted and deprived of their human rights. Saddam did not deserve to live so magnificently, while his people were dying from malnutrition and lack of medical needs. He did not deserve the political power that he had acquired by ordering people killed and forcing others to resign their power to him.
             Because of the Gulf War in 1991, the U.N. had imposed sanctions on Iraq to limit their ability to make more weapons of mass destruction (WMD). These sanctions were based on an oil-for-food system. This system allowed Iraq to export limited amounts of oil to buy food and medical supplies only. The U.N. Security Council, however, never monitored the program and Hussein was using less than the agreed amount of money available for humanitarian purposes and medical supplies ("oil"). Instead, he used it to buy extremely expensive medical equipment that was seldom used.
             Additionally, as if he was not wealthy enough, he smuggled oil out of Iraq that was worth millions of dollars, which went straight toward his personal pleasures. He built monuments and palaces for himself instead of meeting the greatly needed health and sanitary needs of his people.
             I, along with countless other Americans, believe that we have a responsibility to occupy, and keep Iraq from falling under a Hussein like dictatorship again. The U.S. has to keep the Iraqi people sa...