Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "The guy has violated the terms of the armistice. That, in itself, is justification UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW, to continue the war and overthrow him, or force him to comply with the terms of the original armistice."
I think this is the center of your differences with me. I agree that Saddam is not a nice guy, but I don't see that we have a right to start a war over it.
The US did not assist the United Nations in the Kuwaiti Liberation war because of an attack on the US. We did it because of an attack on Kuwait. We had no dog in that conflict, other than Kuwait.
Kuwait asked us to assist them. We did. Now 10 years have gone by and Kuwait says that they don't want us to attack Iraq. And we have the right to do this (unilaterally) because Iraq didn't complete an agreement with the United Nations? Hey, I thought the conservatives were against having US soldiers fight for the United Nations, have you changed your mind?
So your slant on international relations is that if a country breaks an armistice they can be attacked by what is essentially a 3rd party? I guess that means that the Germans can go after us because we broke an armistice with Cochise in 1885.
I know that my example is ridiculous. But so is the concept of the US going to war because of the breaking of an armistice between Iraq and the United Nations. Especially with the victim (Kuwait) and the warring party (the United Nations) asking us not to do it. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to me.
To kill thousands of people you have to come up with damn fine reasoning and you simply haven't done it yet.
The guy has violated the terms of the armistice. That, in itself, is justification UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW, to continue the war and overthrow him, or force him to comply with the terms of the original armistice.
It's not like I'm a left winger. I've never voted for a Democrat and I never will. But I'm not the only right wing nut case that says we don't have a case for invading Iraq.
It has been accepted political fact in this country that the US should never get into a war without full support from the American people. The right wing is split on Iraq. The left wing is against it. There is not sufficient political will to fight in Iraq. There's enough will to make the initial invasion, but there isn't enough to put up with the inevitable guerilla war that would result between the US, the numerous Baathists, the Kurds, and the Islamic Fundamentalists.
The Baathists and Islamic Fundamentalists will shoot at us for invading their country. The Kurds will shoot at us for not allowing a Kurdish homeland. The Islamic Fundamentalists and Kurds will receive help in shooting at us from Iran. The Baathists will receive help in shooting at us from Syria. The religious types will shoot at us because we're Christians. The secular types will shoot at us because we got rid of the Baath party, which was secular.
We're at risk of pissing off everyone in the country.
Iran already has the experience of invading Iraq and expecting the locals to rebel against Saddam Hussein. It didn't work. Will it work for us? There's no way of knowing in advance. It might, or it might not. But if it doesn't work the result will be to kill thousands of Americans, and if it does work, so what, Iraq is a threat to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, not the United States.
The locals already know that the US does not have the political will to stick it out. That fact, as demonstrated in Lebanon and Somalia, and the undeniable fact that there is argument in the US over the invasion (as demonstrated by this thread) will hearten them, and encourage them to snipe at us. When the sniping reaches a certain point, the American public will decide that there really isn't a point in letting American boys get killed in order to make the world safe for Kuwait (who asked us not to do it in the first place), and they'll force the politicians to bring the troops home.
If Bush somehow were able to get US troops in Iraq he'd end up destroying the Republican party for it. Maybe that's why the left wing is so quiet on this issue.
-- Carl |
