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To: michael97123 who wrote (41339)	2/19/2001 6:43:18 PM
From: Steve Lee	Respond to of 64865

The Kuwaitis and Saudis don't take an operational role, they just pay for whatever is necessary to keep Saddam out of their countries. It is a win-win situation for the leaders concerned. Kuwait gets to maintain its sovereignty while pumping oil that originates below Iraq. It also gets to keep the border that has moved tens of miles into Iraq over recent years. Saddam gets to stay in power and receive some sympathy/victim status as he is able to blame his country's woes on the evil US and Israel. I doubt Saddam would be in power today, if alive at all, had he not invaded Kuwait and inflicted the embargoes upon himself. Our leaders get to have some other countries pay for military wages and equipment upgrades/maintenance - bills we would have faced anyway. Plus they get an all expenses paid training and weapons testing arena. The losers - the Iraqi population are losers in a way due to the economic sanctions, but some of the population are also benefitting from protection against the powers there. We also are losing because we get higher oil prices due to Iraq's non contribution to world oil output (officially, at least). The Palestinians are also losers here. Their cause has some merit. I am not talking about their claims to the land Israel was assigned in the 1940's by the UN, but to the subsequent land taken by Israel. This was partly in response to Arab aggression, and is justified by Israel as a buffer zone to protect themselves - which begs the question as to why residential settlements are encouraged in this "buffer zone". I say the Palestinians are losers here because they have some sympathy from people in the west, but their leaders go and blow it consistently with talk of pushing Israel into the sea, and inciting Muslims around the world to atack western targets. The latest such talk from Iraq this weekend just goes further towards diluting sympathy from westerners, who get to see the Arabs portrayed as terrorists and extremists. We get Hezbollah described as terrorists in western media. They are a bunch of farmers whose "terrorism" consisted of fighting for an area of Lebanon in which they lived that was taken from them by Israel (much of which they successfully regained). How is that any more terrorism than the UK bombing Dresden or the US bombing Hiroshima?