You call this diplomacy?

So apparently Mr. Bush received a phone call from Saddam Hussein one day in which the (now publicly hanged on international TV) dictator offered to peaceably leave Iraq for the relatively paltry sum of $1 billion dollars.  An offer like this doesn’t come every day, you know….  Here’s a chance to avoid the horror of war, to depose an enemy without firing a shot, etc.  But how did the “prince of this age” respond?

Mr. Bush chose the path of bloodshed, lies about fictitious WMDs, the betrayal of the trust of American citizens, war costs that are verging on $1,000,000,000,000.00, the deaths of well over 3,000 young American men and women, not to mention the lives of countless Iraqi civilians sacrificed…  all for the sake of  – are you ready for this? –  another failed Muslim state that persecutes Christians and Jews and that is now hopelessly embroiled in a civil war.  

All this indicates that Saddam already was more than compliant with US demands — and knew his rule was over….  The “ransom” money he asked for could have been frozen, or he might have been dealt with later on, perhaps through other means of pursuing international justice.  But no, Mr. Bush — the self-appointed crusader for his personalized version of “democracy” — decided to shame the nation by using torture and tyranny to export his father’s vendetta.  Nice diplomacy, Mr. Bush…. 

Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/27/wsaddam127.xml