In a strange sense it is a tribute to Saddam Hussein that 12 years after he was captured and nine years after he was hanged his presence is still being strongly felt inside US politics. Republican candidate after candidate are having to emphasize how “the world is a better place’'” without him. So paradoxically, while he is very much gone, he is very much here.
The latest to join the chorus of the world being a better place without Saddam Hussein is Louisiana’s very American Governor Bobby Jindal. In keeping with his life’s philosophical certitudes he also thinks that President George W. Bush was “absolutely right” in invading Iraq. Jindal, who is considering a presidential run, told ABC News, “….at the time, given the information that they had, President [George W.] Bush made absolutely the right decision. Let's remember, the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein."
Anytime you have to remind the world that it is better now than before, it is not better now than before because being better is as much a quantifiable reality as it is an unquantifiable feeling. Ask the people of Iraq now whether they think they are better off and you would get a diametrically opposite, perhaps even invective-laden, response. The world is or is not a better place because some presidential candidates in America say it is or it is not.
From now right up until the 2016 election we will be inundated with a debate surrounding Hussein, Iraq, W and so on. We are unlikely to get a clear, definable answer other than the common Republican theme of the world being a better place without Hussein.
It is not for me to say whether Governor Jindal has what it takes to qualify as a Republican nominee let alone as president of the United States. My reflexive response is negative. There is something in his body language that suggests that with a state governorship he has perhaps risen to his optimum political ambition. Of course, I could be 100 percent wrong and come 2017 January and you might have President Jindal. If Saddam Hussein can return, so can Jindal become president.