I agree that Iraq is an unpleasant place to live in. So was Chile under Pinochet (and we all know who supported Pinochet, don't we?).
I just don't see this as sufficient grounds to attack a country. Sorry.
So, the injustice and cruelty that happened years ago and is no longer continuing, is justification for for letting slide what has been a horrible regime lasting thirty years and is continuing to get worse?
You understand, I hope, that Iraq is not just "unpleasant?"
You understand that if you get caught up in the security machine you don't get to talk to a Monagasque type official. But instead, are beaten for hours, maybe even days before the talk even starts, you won't be allowed to piss or shit when you need to, and every day, for as long as it suits the whims of the person who took you off the street, this will continue. And, if they actually think you might know something, anything, they'll get serious and bring out the intimate electrical equipment, and of course, if you're sort of attractive you'll probably be raped for fun.
Then they might throw you in the back of that square mile prison compound and lose you. And your family won't be notified of your whereabouts or disposition. And you might well rot there for years.
This has been done to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
Moving up from the singular to the collective, you do realize if you are unfortunate enough to belong to the wrong ethnic group you may well be kicked out of your home, or killed in one of the general round ups, or gassed. Or driven across the border into another country which is not too happy about that and is not going to put you up even in a one star hotel?
Do you realize they take children from families, little children, and throw them in prison? To punish families, make sure they behave themselves is the object.
This all happens continuously as a matter of policy. And it's quite irrelevant to the folk who do these things whether anyone is plotting against the regime. They just do it for the sake of doing it because it spreads the terror. "Pour encourager les autres."
We disagree clearly on what are sufficient grounds for attacking a country. I can't think of better grounds, especially since the regime there is seduced by the idea of bringing all these benefits of civilization to its neighbours who aren't yet quite so developed in the finer points of mass institutional torture and genocide.
I was against the horrible things done to my non-socialist friends under Pinochet and to the socialist un-friends as well. I did what I could for them. What happened in Chile was criminal and the criminals never paid.
But what happened then has no logical connection with an argument for attacking what's going on in Iraq now, nor any logical connection with an argument for invading Iraq. |
