An Iraq War Argument that Bothers Me to this Day

Bush collage from photos of soldiers who died in Iraq. Origin unknown.

About this time 10 years ago, right in the middle of an argument, in the middle of our kitchen, a family member told me I would be "toast" in some other countries for opposing the Iraq war.

I always wondered exactly what she meant by that... that we should be more like those countries and kill the people who disagree, or that I was lucky to be in a country where I could speak out? I think the latter, but it's still an odd thing to say when debating whether we should have fought the war. Just out of the blue, like, well, don't you want to fight to protect your right to say you don't want to fight? As if Saddam Hussein was a threat to my right to speak. 

Bush and Cheney lied the right people into it, and the group-think led the rest. It was all threat inflation, all the time, even with supposedly smart people. And it will bother me forever that even close family members who are otherwise perfectly sensible people will succumb to the blood lust that a few neo-cons can fire up, given the right circumstances.