Editor:

In response to Ryan Doud’s letter to the editor (“Iraq war was unjust, humanitarian reasons aside,” Oct. 19), I think he has the worst argument against the war in Iraq I have heard. His argument is that the war in Iraq is immoral.

Immoral? Is that the best you’ve got? Speaking of immoral, what about all the immoral acts of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein? Life before Saddam was much worse.

For example, Amnesty International reported that in October 2000, the Iraqi government executed dozens of women accused of prostitution. Former UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Max Van der Stoel’s report in April 1998 stated that Iraq had executed at least 1,500 people during the previous year for political reasons.

In June 2001, the Human Rights Alliance reported that Saddam Hussein had killed more than 500 journalists and other intellectuals in the past decade.

That is just a sample of what he has done, not to mention the testing of biological weapons on his own people.

Hussein was the immoral one. Iraq is better off without the immoral dictator in power.

Devan Thorne

Junior, International Studies