A No Brainer

This has been flying around the Internet and I checked it out and it's true.

Remember all the hollering earlier this week about Pat Robertson (search) suggesting the United States assassinate Hugo Chavez (search)?

Remember the Democrats insisting George W. Bush had to disassociate himself from Pat Robertson, as if Robertson were a member of the cabinet?

Remember Jesse Jackson (search) on the show Wednesday huffing and puffing about the lies and the illegal war and how it's immoral for us to talk about knocking off a foreign leader?

So George Stephanopoulos (search) in 1997 — just after he left the Clinton White House as a close Clinton advisor — wrote in a Newsweek article that Clinton was going to have to think about assassinating Saddam Hussein.

Where was the outrage?

Well there shouldn't have been any outrage because Stephanopoulos was right.

Jesse Jackson didn't answer the question, but if any U.S. leader had a choice between 1,900 dead American soldiers and one dead Saddam Hussein, it's a no brainer.

We have Saddam alive now. Would Jesse Jackson or any leader trade him dead to have 1,900 American soldiers back alive? Easy. You can make that decision in your sleep.

So what was so wrong with what Pat Robertson said? Well it may have been a little premature. I don't like Hugo, but he's no Saddam yet.

Other than that, the main objection was that Robertson is a conservative and a Christian and since he's a pastor, he shouldn't be talking about shooting people. OK, point well taken.

But the rest of the high dudgeon, the wailing and beating the chest was simply because Robertson represented a way to try to embarrass Bush, even though the president had nothing to do with Robertson or what he said.

Here's a news flash: Stephanopoulos was right in 1997 when he said we might have to off Saddam. Bush was right in the days before the war when he said if Saddam and his sons leave, the war is off. Bush was right when the night before the war he sent bombers to try to bomb Saddam in his sleep.

I'd trade the 1,900 American soldiers for Saddam in a heartbeat.

What's so hard about that decision?

And why is it so hard to admit you'd do it?

That's My Word.

Watch John Gibson weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on "The Big Story" and send your comments to: myword@foxnews.com