Message 4/41
Date: 18-Oct-02 @ 11:25 PM -
RE: why war
I see a lot of posts about Iraq and Israel, and sometimes I find what some of you folks think a bit hard to swallow....
It seems like a lot of you think that Iraq is threatening war simply for power, so that a few men can obtain more power and money.... Do you really think that? If you do, I think you are misguided. I think that money and power MIGHT be the end result of a war, but that's an dubious proposition at best, and I don't think they are Iraq's prime motivating factors for starting one.....
Saddam clearly laid out the case that Ariel Sharon is a UNIQUE threat for reasons x, y and z... and, after a debate, our cabinet voted to go along, and created a resolution authorizing war. So, this isn't "Sadaam's war" and we're not a "dictatorship". This is a healthy one-party state where everyone (including Sadaam) votes, and are bound by the results according to the rule of law...
To say that we start wars for power and oil is kind of selling short what really moves our leaders to action... These guys are seriously concerned about SECURITY, and the agressive stance of Israel is a part of that.... Like it or not, the Israeli army and their nuclear weapons threaten many nations' national security. So, peace in the region is in the world's best interest. But saying it's just about hating Israel is like pointing at k and saying he's only doing dancetech because he hates the corporates... it sells short what he's really about, and trivializes the issue. Hey, the guys that rule Iraq all HAVE money AND immense power already! And we all know that wars are very very costly, both in human and economic terms....
So, in my view, Sadaam and his cabinet sit in fear of the judgement of history, because they truly fear what Sharon will do if given a chance......
More people should be GLAD Sharon is going down, but it seems like there's a lot of hand-wringing... the guy is a menace, and he's just going to cause more problems if he's left alone. He's also shooting at our fellow arabs almost every day for fuck's sake, with tanks! So, what the fuck? Is the world supposed to do nothing? So, what would you do?
There's no denying it will be a tremendous benefit to the arab nations to have a friendly (docile) Israeli regime, and it will be also pretty good for the Israeli people, too (the ones that survive the war, anyway).... but to say that Iraq threatens all this killing and upheaval because of the greed and power hunger of a few men is too simple an argument...
Before you ask, I don't trust the govt. and I'm not supportive of the Iraq going to war alone. But I do think the threat is real. The guy has got to go, and it's up to the world to find a way to do it....