Huh?

Don't get me wrong, I like our current Prime Minister, and as I've said before, I don't like the Yee-Haw-Screw-You-Rest-Of-The-World attitude with which the US went into Iraq, but this collection of Badawi quotes from The Star had me a little confused:

"No one wants a government that is oppressive. People will always fight oppression and people who fight oppression cannot be called terrorists."

"No oppressive government must be allowed to survive."

And then a little later:

"When Sept 11 occurred, we in Malaysia were very sympathetic with the United States and even willing to support efforts to counter terrorism. But the United States took a swing and took the pursuit of terrorism into invading Iraq. We disagree with that."

Okay... I think we can file Saddam's government under 'oppressive'. Selectively-oppressive, perhaps (as I understand it, they only gas-bombed defenseless civilians who didn't agree with Saddam's totalarian regime, and tortured olympic athletes who didn't perform... everyone else got a pretty good break, I suppose), but since when was that better than all-out oppressive?

And thanks to the US, his oppressive government didn't survive. I say, give em props for that at least. Quietly, though. We don't need Bush's head to get any bigger. His white hat might explode.