Strewth.
This really points to the differences between Australia and the US, doesn’t it.
I heard an email from a visiting American read out on a magazine style current affairs programme on TV this morning, saying the writer could not believe how disrespectful we are of our politicians.
Well gee whizz, this is a democracy and we ENCOURAGE people to be critical of politicians. If we weren’t we would be even more like you, supporting someone because a political office has somehow attained the status of “god-ness”
And BTW Skid Row, the last time I looked, it wasn’t the US, UK and Spain sacrificing troops, it was the US, the UK and AUSTRALIA (you know that big, pretty empty continent in the southern hemisphere, the one your military left off their Hollywood engineered world map in the press centre in Qatar? Its a pity we weren’t left out of the rest of it as well)
As far as the troops are concerned, there is no one that I have heard who is opposed to the war who wants nothing more than our troops brought home safely and as soon as possible. They are pawns in a terrible game, just as the Iraqi people are. None of them have a realistic choice.
I’m vehemently against war. Not just this war, all war. It makes me sick. Because of this, I tend to be kind of disgusted with the military: they ar ethe men and women who volunteer to do the jobs that I personally find morally reprehensible. I know not all of them are out there dropping bombs or shooting people, or even designing the bombs or guns, but the association still makes me wary.
And yet…my sister, who I love very much (though we’ve had decidedly rocky times) is in the military. Right now, it’s not impossible for me to deal with - she’s a sophomore at the Air Force Academy. Prestigious school, she’s there for the academics, and so on. Only…it’s the military. Which I completely disagree with.
Life in a cave in Idaho, completely isolated from the world, sounds pretty good right about now. Or maybe being stuck on a desert island…I dunno, a chill pill might have to do for now. I try to be sensitive and such about it, but sometimes…it’s hard to keep your mouth shut when you’re passionate about something, and more than once recently I’ve been needing a crow bar to get my foot out of my mouth.
If it’s “myopic, jejune, and Neanderthal” to negotiate with Saddam, why are we doing just that with Kim Jong Il, perhaps the one dictator left on earth more brutal and insane than Saddam? If 5-10,000 a month aren’t dying in North Korea as a direct result of Kim’s “one country” policy, it’s only because a whole lot of the less-well-off have either fled or starved to death.
Kim’s got WMD, and either has or is on the verge of having a nuke. Isn’t this what we’re allegedly trying to stop in Iraq?
No, I refuse to believe this is a “humanitarian war.” Humanitarianism never entered the equation until it was needed to justify other reasons for initiating the conflict.
Duke, I’ll go with the “easy target” theory as well. Fighting North Korea might very well be the start of the first nuclear confrontation since WWII. Fighting Saddam is akin to rounding up a very mean and vicious dog - with 200 armed men. Problem is, there’s 50 innocent dogs you gotta kill to get to the mean one, but hey, who’s counting.
But all in all, I’m damn glad GWB hasn’t locked in on North Korea yet. That’s potentially a hell of a lot more catastrophic for ALL the world than Iraq ever will be, and you KNOW he’ll come out with guns a-blazin’. Which could very well trigger ol’ Kim to just flip out, and do something really drastic.
Your turn, I suppose. Be super nice to them, and the gov’t publicity hacks will forget you exist; but just get one of your deputies to say something true about W, and they’ll get you all the attention you can handle.
Well, I’ll chime in and say I feel for the soldiers (and civvies) who are in harms way right now. I hope and pray that this is easy for their sake.
But I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to remember the fool(s) who got us into this mess too and hold them accountable for every drop of blood shed.
I’m talking about averages over a period of time. You know, it really isn’t hard to find stuff on this. The man you’re defending launched nerve gas and biological toxin attacks against 4,000,000 people from April 1987 through October 1988, and has murdered more than 5,000 in a single day. Estimates vary between 1.2 million and 2.5 million murder victims all told. The number of rapes, tortures, and debilitations are impossible to estimate.
I’m no mathematician, but if you want to nitpick over the numbers, then knock yourself out. And then tell us why he should just suddenly stop. Diplomacy? What a joke. He doesn’t give a shit about world opinion. From one of the sources below:
I read (or at least skimmed) the whole lot before posting the first time. One report dated 2003 refers to events in 1988. The other report dated 2003 provided a cumulative total of ethnic minorities forced from their homes since 1991.
Who’s arguing about whether Saddam is a bad guy? No one I’ve noticed on this board.
You were asked a specific question. Do you have a specific answer?
