the Euston Manifesto eloquently explained

Norm Geras links to an extraordinary talk by Jim Nolan, an Australian barrister, at the Fabian Society in Sydney, Australia.

In weaving his defense, Nolan mentions all the people of conscience who continue to make the case against totalitarianism—from Tony Blair to Paul Berman to Kanan Makiya to Christopher Hitchens (all of whom I have mentioned on this blog, by the way, some of them frequently). And he gets to the nub of the problem:

Both JFK and FDR were Democrats, of course, and the party has always been associated with internationalism. Somehow, though, that moralism — that urge to do good abroad — has drifted over to the GOP. It is Republicans, particularly neocons, who talk the language of moralism in foreign policy and who, weapons of mass destruction aside, wanted to take out Saddam Hussein because he was a beast. It mattered to them that he killed and tortured his own people. It says something about the Democratic left that it cheered Michael Moore’s infantile “Fahrenheit 9/11″ even though the film made no mention of Hussein’s depredations, not even his gassing of Kurdish villages.

Most devastatingly, he quotes the Iraqi ambassador to Canada, Howar Ziad [emphasis mine]:

“The contrast between democracy and dictatorship explains much of what is happening in Iraq. Diehard fascists, the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda fanatics, have waged a relentless campaign against the Iraqi people. They have allowed Iraqi citizens almost no rest, no opportunity to heal the wounds of 35 years of Baathist totalitarianism. This faction, which subscribes to the dark days of state brutality in Iraqi history, has viciously attacked schoolchildren, mosques, churches, funerals and hospitals. They provoke murderous sectarianism in attempt to undo every weave of the country’s social fabric. Outrageously, foreign apologists dress up their ruthless acts of murder as a so-called “national resistance.”

Despite the violent challenges that we face from fanatics in our attempt to establish a secure and stable democratic state, our aim is to go further than mere democracy and to build an Iraqi national consensus. The majority of Iraqis has insisted on a principle of inclusiveness over one of narrow majoritarianism. We have already built a government that represents over 80 per cent of Iraqis, and now we are trying to accommodate the remainder. Most members of the Sunni Arab community of Iraq reject terrorism; it is only a violent minority that wishes to wreck a peaceful and democratic future.”