Germany attacked Poland. Poland had a mutual defense treaty with the UK and France, who had not been attacked by Germany at that time. Nevertheless, France and and the UK declared war on and later entered Germany with military forces, thereby violating Germany's soveeirgnty.
By thames's argument, the fault in this matter lies entirely with the UK and France for their attack on Gemany. For some reason, previous actions by Germany must be disregarded.
Let me first say this issue has gotten very confused with the discussion having moved between two threads and circulated among 4-5 people.
Having said that, I don't think Thames is disregarding the argument re previous actions, but rather he's saying its a very weak one, a view that's held almost universally outside the US. Its weak becuase it argues that past behavior is not changeable and therefore, the nation warrants a preemptive strike. Dictators use it all the time but we are not used to seeing democracies take that stand.
However, as Tim pointed out, the main support behind Bush's current argument to strike now is that Iraq has violated the ceasefire agreement. Using their past behavior as motivation has become less important.
ted |
