QuestionItNow Voices4 Comments:WMD or not...The experts have estimated (Village Voice 12/15/03) that Saddam Hussein killed between 300,000 and 500,000 citizens not to mention nearly 1,000,000 casualties in combat with Iran and his other neighboring countries. What I think alot of people fail to understand is that in this brave new world full of very very evil people...somebody's gotta be the man... Someone must stand up when people behave this way. Does no one remember the 1930's? Germany and Japan killed millions of Chinese, eastern Eurpoeans, Russians and Jews...Before ANYONE and I mean ANYONE opposed them. Between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered by the invading troops. An estimated 80,000 women and girls were raped; many of them were then mutilated or murdered. The world stood by and did nothing and the isolationist in the US wanted to appease these devils. For some reason we all think that war began on December 7th...makes you wonder. The era of NIMBY needs to end. Despots deplore education and business unless it directly enriches them. By removing Saddam and promoting a democratic government that supports business and education, the Mid-East will change. You are already seeing civilians of these backwards nations rising up against these oppresive governments. Yeah Bush and his team have alot of problems on thier hands...But I think if you asked the 2000...They'd take the trade to prevent another holocaust... Greater Love hath no man than he who lays down his life for his friends. Yes...That would be considered a "Culture of Life"
By Cal Trask, at 10:48 PM, November 21, 2005 Cal,
Most Americans know Saddam was a brutal tyrant. That is not in dispute. What is in dispute, when one uses his mistreatment of his people as rational, is why did we not invade any other country in which leaders engage in mass slaughter.
Why does the US Government (both Democrat and Republican) remain silent about the communist Chinese government brutally crushing of a home-grown democratic movement in Tiananmen Square back in 1989? Freedom was on the march there.
Back to your other argument, Saddam did not have long-range missiles or strong ties with bin Laden, so how was he going to drop a nuclear bomb on the US?
In addition, the Japanese and German war machines were two of the most formidable forces in history. To compare the Iraqi military to these Empires is laughable, if it the ramifications were not so painful for the 2,000+ patriots who have laid down their lives for those who did not even serve their country during Vietnam. Oh yeah, they had "other priorities."
By REB 84, at 12:31 AM, November 22, 2005 Good Points. I agree that we are "selective" in who we prop up and who we don't. Why we deal with China and North Korea and NOT with the poor in Cuba is beyond me. You would think it would be the other way around. We spout off about the evils of Iran and support the eviler (is that even a word?) Saudi regime that is just as oppesive and backward as any other Mid-East government. In Iraq the problem that we're dealing with is that everyone...I mean everyone. Thought that Saddam had WMD and all of our so called (and I use that term loosly) intelegence said he had WMD and was in the market for nukes. This Intellegence dated all the way back to Bush 1 and the Clinton eras. So no one is immune from this frankly inept reporting. Both sides have to take equal blame. What I don't see from anyone is "okay we both screwed this up...but we did a good thing in getting rid of Saddam...now let's fix it together and make sure the new Iraqi government can stay in power long enough to make some reforms without to many people getting killed. Unfortunatley now all you have is the typical status-quo of finger pointing and name calling. No the Iraqi army wasn't even close to the axis powers...but they would do anything to wipe Israel off of the planet. Even one rouge nuke or dirty bomb into Tel Aviv would be devestating and bring about a major war in the area costing millions of civilian and military lives. When traced back to the nation of origin, that country would be nothing but smoking glass. Escalation would be apocaliptic. We're talking WWIII here...Einstein's prophecy would come true...
As far as the 'other priorities' go I agree that those arguements are poor at best...but I did and said alot of stupid things before I was a Christian...
Thanks for the dialogue...Maybe we need to get on the 'aisles'. Unfortunatley we'd never get elected because we're too honest...
Your thoughts...(sorry for the poor spelling)
By Cal Trask, at 10:46 AM, November 22, 2005 Cal,
Thank you for the insightful and thought-provoking response. If only our government officials could listen and cosider alternative points of view as well as yu appear to. Thank you for the complement, but I have no interest in becoming a politician.
I have been blogging in a larger community ConyersBlog.us I will take the liberty of posting your last comment there (I wish they had spell-check on these posts)
Take care & happy Thanksgiving,
R.E.B.
By REB 84, at 2:03 PM, November 22, 2005
