Iraq - U.N.

[Barry]

So what's up with the UN? Why is it so hard to mean what you say and say what you mean? How many more inspections do they feel are needed? I think time has finally run out.

-Barry

[Karl]

Barry: I agree totally. The problem is an age old one. The more people that have input into a solution the harder it is to come to a consenus. Whatever happens, and I think the war will happen soon, I hope and pray that our troops have the unconditional support of the American people.

[Barry]

Our service men and woman will always have my support, regardless of the political winds that blow.

[BWrangler]

Hello Everyone,

For me supporting the troops means giving them the means to successfully complete the situations they find themselves in.

It sure doesn't necessarily mean supporting those who put them in the situation!

Iraq is not the only mideastern nation with weapons of mass distruction. With the blockaide and overflight bombings Iraq is somewhat behind it's neighbors in that regard. It would be hard to find one of any size that doesn't already have what Iraq wants.

And I bet no one in the US wants to know where Iraq got it's germ and chemical warfare from back during the Iraq-Iran war!
It made the rest of the world furious!!

Want to see democracy in Iraq? Didn't happen for Kuwait. Didn't happen after WWI when the western world partitioned up the middle east. Bet it won't happen anytime in the future. Not it the US's best interest.

Is he a world threat? His neighbors don't think so. We have to pay them tens of billions of dollars to allow us to eliminate this threat! How long do you think the US will be supported by these allies when they've put the money in their pockets and their populace turns against them?

Bin Laden can muster hundreds of martyrs. An inflammed arab world could muster ten of thousands of martyrs. The US is attempting to fight the war on terrorism with cold war mentality. Our overwhelming military might can't be resisted by conventional military armaments. Will the next battle be with bombers and tanks in a foriegn land? I think not. It will occure in our cities and the cities of Europe. The lessons of Vietnam and the Israel-Palestinian conflict have not been lost except maybe to many in the US :>(.

Now, N. Korea not only has the weapons but also the means to deliver them and we won't even talk directly to them.

May God help this nation.

Dennis Murrell
Just my thought. I won't enter into arguments

[Robert Brenchley]

If the Iraqis are disarming, why are they so insistent on war? You can't expect the process to go smoothly, but the inspectors say its going, and want a few more months. You can't claim that there's no other way but war till they actually come back and say they've failed. If the agenda is really about SH, why are the Americans talking in terms of a military presence lasting 8 years (let out on British TV last week)? There are too many quastions and too few answers on this one. I wouldn't object so much if there was the same rule for everyone, but why is it OK for the US, the UK, the Israelis and the rest to have these weapons anyway? We created Iraq, created Saddam, and gave him the technology. So who's to blame? And why should war be visited on people who are already suffering as a result of clumsily targeted sanctions?

------------------
Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com
Birmingham UK

[hoosierhiver]

what's the hurry, he ain't going anywhere.

[Joel Acheson]

This is a sad and terrible subject, and I fear that there is no real solution which will be honorable and peaceable for any of us. The issue goes back hundreds (Arabs vs. Christians), maybe thousands (Arabs vs. Jews) of years. The Moslems have very good and very old memories - and their religion teaches that revenge is holy.
The truth as I see it is that we should have stayed out of Iraq in the first place (Saddam asked King George I no less than five times what he would do if Iraq invaded Kuwait, and each time Saddam was told that it was none of our business). But we had Desert Storm, and it was like punching the Tar Baby of the old Uncle Remus stories. We are now stuck in that "Tar Baby" called Iraq, and King GeorgeII is fixing to poke him again.
I am not unpatriotic, and I support our services wholeheartedly (my daughter repairs missile guidance systems on Apache helicopters, and will be on the sharp end of the stick), but I do not support what I see as an unjust war of agression on our part.
Yes, Saddam is a threat, but as pointed out, even people physically closer than us are not overly worried about him.
But Korea is a worse threat, and is actively harrassing us, and their neighbors actively fear them, but we do substantively nothing about this threat. Why the discrepancy?
I don't have answers, just questions. The whole thing smells, to me.
May God have mercy on us.
That's just my two cents...
Joel

[Michael Bush]

>But Korea is a worse threat, and is actively harrassing us, and their neighbors actively fear them, but we do substantively nothing about this threat. Why the discrepancy?

Politics is always a game of misdirection. I'm not certain why Korea is being apparently ignored, but I'm sure it's not because they are ACTUALLY being ignored, but as a case of misdirection of attention.

One thing is certain. All of the policticians, including Saddam are lying. Do you know how I can tell that a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.

I saw Bill Clinton on Larry King and he seemed to think that we need to be prepared to go to war so that Saddam will take this all seriously and that he won't otherwise. But Bill seem to think that Saddam would finally back down when he was really faced with war. I do know that Bill can't get reelected and he knows more about the situation than me.

I'm not at all certain that a war would be the right thing, nor am I certain that leaving Saddam with the weapons and power he has and the ruthlessness he has shown is a good idea. He is a murderer, a genocidal maniac, a torturer, a cruel tyrant, but the question is, is that our problem? I don't know if it is.

When I would spout my isolationism view, my father would say that any meglamaniac in a position of power should not be left there until they get more powerful. Hitler is a prime example of what happens when you keep letting them go. Appeasment has never worked in such situation. You just end up with a bigger war later.

I pray for us all.

May you live in uneventful times.

[hoosierhiver]

i think michael hit on a good point,politicians lie to us,our government lies to us,nearly every administration even has a famous lie.i did not sleep with that woman,no new taxes,i don't recall,we are not bombing cambodia and laos,and those are just a few.don't believe everything they tell us,they might be lying again.

[cpecka]

“He is a murderer, a genocidal maniac, a torturer, a cruel tyrant, but the question is, is that our problem? I don't know if it is.”

From 1977 – 1998 I was in the US Army, spent most of my career in special operations. My area of interest was the Middle East; we studied Saddam Hussain men al Tikriti. We trained various units of neighboring countries to protect them selves from the threat from Iraq. I participated in the liberation of Kuwait City with the battalion of Kuwaiti Mech Inf that I was assigned to advise. My team was one of the few Americans allowed into the city for the mop up.

I saw first hand what Saddam’s people did to the citizens in Kuwait when I had to go into the morgues in the hospital basements and view the bodies of those who were killed by the torture their tormentors gave them. I viewed the captured police stations and headquarters building of the Iraqi Army and saw first hand the torture chambers that he used on the Kuwaiti people. I had to take photographs for my command, but the visions and smells are forever etched into my mind.

We are dealing with a truly evil regime, not only one who kills and torture the people they conquered but one who has no morale hesitation to use Chemical/Biological Weapons on it’s own countrymen. During the Gulf Way of 91 the people around Basra rejoiced when members of the 101st advanced to the Euphrates River, they mistakenly thought that they too would be liberated. Unfortunately in a decision mandated by the UN agreement of cease fire the land and those people were returned to Iraq and the dissidents were promptly executed.

Everyday since I returned from the Gulf, I have to look at my face in the mirror, and I ask did we do all we could to help those who were executed? Were the promises made to them upheld?

We are now looking into the face of evil and must face our fears, ask me again “is that our problem?”

[BWrangler]

Hello Everyone,

I hope the recent history around Bosra between the Shiittes, USA and Saddam H is not repeated between the USA, Turkey and the Kurds in western Iraq. Massive genocide occured there in the last century.

In the long term will the necessary military repression of the various factions and our own support of such a government result in the ever so predictable pattern shown throughout our national history from Cuba through Iran? I hope we could learn from history and not keep repeating our mistakes.

Saddam H (aka Hitler Clone) and his associates must go. I wonder how many will need to be eliminated in order to eliminate the evil from the area. Probably many.

Our ambassador to Irag was called in with a personal conference with Saddam H the weekend before the Kuwait invasion. She affirmed the US's hands off policy in the matter. Later, she also was a principal in the UN's decision to remove the war lords in Somalia and convert a humanitarian mission into a democracy building one. Go figure!

I sure hope this administration is beyond thinking that using our military is THE solution to the worlds problems. Didn't work for Rome and it won't work for the New Rome.

A war in Iraq is just the first step in a long term process. I am not too hopeful in this matter.

May the process be swift and effective in the long term.

Just more thoughts
Dennis

[Michael Bush]

If we hadn't gotten involved in stopping tyrants in the past all of Europe would be speaking German and there would be no Jewish people or gypsies or mentally retarded people left alive in Europe.

War is always a difficult decision and always a last resort.

But anyone who says "violence never solved anything" was not fighting the Nazis in Germany.

[newguy]

Last evening on the radio, I heard a conversation between the talk show host and an Iraqi exile. The Iraqi said that the Iraqis would be very happy if Saddam were taken out. He said he came to America because he had no future in Iraq, and that some of his family members were killed because he escaped out of Iraq.
Saddam has paid 3 million to the families of the Palestinian suicide bombers. What if he would do that with Al-Quaeda?
We have 7 1/2 hours before Saddam has to surrender. I hope he does, and I will be praying for President Bush.

[Michael Bush]

I might be suspcious of the media on that except I have talked to Iraqi's myself and they say the same thing.