Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (39924)	8/26/2002 3:03:27 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Safire wrote: >>No evidence of Saddam's support of terror will convince the amalgam of today's McGovernites and yesterday's Bushies of the need to overthrow a dictator racing to acquire nukes.<< He's correct: no evidence is not convincing, to the majority. No evidence only convinces those who view war as the first resort, after all reason and diplomacy have been addled with fear-inducing propaganda.

To: LindyBill who wrote (39924)	8/26/2002 9:29:40 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

Safire missed the precise wording of Odai's denial - he denied that Iraq was sponsoring Jund Al-Islam, but made no comment about Ansar Al-Islam, which is the group in the news lately. >>Odai Hussein said the group, ''Jund al-Islam'' or Soldiers of Islam, has no connection to al-Qaida, the terror group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. Odai was speaking to a group of Iraqi journalists on Al-Shabab television, a channel that he owns. The interview was taped on Aug. 14, but broadcast late Friday. The broadcast appeared to respond to this week's reports in the United States that al-Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan had found refuge in the group, ''Ansar al-Islam'' or Partisans of Islam, in the Kurdish zone of Iraq. The Ansar group broke away from Jund al-Islam. U.S. officials were quoted as saying that Ansar fighters had trained in Afghanistan, where they had contact with al-Qaida, and that Ansar was harboring al-Qaida members. It is not known why Odai spoke only of Jund al-Islam and did not mention Ansar al-Islam, which has received greater attention in recent months. "The Iranians have created the so-called Jund al-Islam, which has nothing to do with Islam ... in order to establish a sphere of influence in northern Iraq,'' Odai said<< thestar.com.my

To: LindyBill who wrote (39924)	8/26/2002 11:27:08 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

America's primary purpose in assembling this alliance of peoples inside and outside Iraq is, plainly put, to stop a homicidal maniac and serial aggressor from gaining the power to threaten our cities with annihilation. A secondary purpose is to forcefully discourage any other nation from secretly supporting terror groups. The third purpose is driven not by any lust for global domination, but by out-and-out Wilsonian idealism: we want to make the Middle East safe for democracy. And not just for Israelis, who have shown how self-determination feeds both body and soul, or just for Kurds, who have made their "no-fly zone" into an example of free enterprise and self-government for all Iraqis (and all Palestinians). These are a pair of fascinating paragraphs. The problem with Safire's argument is that, at least at the moment, no regional state agrees with that argument. And they are the most in jeapordy from Saddam. And, few if any international powers do. So, the absence of any kind of international consensus on this point, means that our allies in the region and elsewhere will believe the worst of our motives, not the best. This argument needs to be accepted on a much wider basis before it can become a serious justification for action.