Yet another religious cult raided

[kandrathe]

Update: Texas supreme court upholds the appeals court ruling. The kids will be returned to their families, unless there are specific charges of abuse against individuals.

Seattle Times -- Was polygamist raid doomed from start?

Investigators "listened to a lot of misinformation and allowed themselves to be kind of captivated by these anti-FLDS people," FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said. At the risk of comparing apples to oranges, this sounds a lot like how the UN/US erroneously miscalculated WMD potential in Iraq.

"We had no choice but to treat those calls as credible. If we had not treated them as credible and something bad happened, people would be very upset," said Tela Mange Again, this argument also rings true in our apples to oranges comparison.

The problem with this comparison is that some things can be undone, like returning the children (although some trauma has occurred). You can't easily undo the toppling of a nation, the execution of its leaders, and the destruction of its cities. What is equivalent in both the Iraq war and this case is the discretion to use the hand of force of the State, rather than to rely on the albeit slower hand of justice and law. I would also question whether the UN really has the authority to govern the actions of nations, whether they be the recalcitrant States of Iraq, Iraq, North Korea or the heavy handedness of China or the US.