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

To: frankw1900 who wrote (58996)	11/26/2002 4:10:49 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>[Former U.N. weapons inspector] Scott Ritter, whom we know well, knows well how evil that regime is. He recently described what he called "the most horrific thing," although he said he did so reluctantly because in his words "he is waging peace now." But he did describe a prison in Baghdad whose stench was unreal, an amalgam of "urine, feces, vomit and sweat," a hellhole where prisoners were "howling and dying of thirst." In this prison, the oldest inmates were 12, the youngest, mere toddlers. Their crime: being children of the regime's political enemies. A children's prison: there can hardly be a more grim symbol of a regime that rules by terror and that embraces terror as a policy against those who oppose it both at home and abroad. << usembassy.org.uk Maybe I don't really understand life in the Third World, but Saddam's regime appears to me to be sui generis when it comes to cruelty and oppression.

To: frankw1900 who wrote (58996)	11/27/2002 5:19:37 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

This is one of the more rational posts I have seen on the subject. I understand where you are coming from - this is a war between our way and their way, and we need to change them into our way before they get stronger or we get weaker. (Can we now hope for an end to the arguments that this is about "freeing the people from oppression" and concentrate on this clash of cultures? :) It is not a bad point. However, I fear this redivision of the planet into "us and them" might lead to another era of cold war. After all, what you are talking about is not just Iraq anymore. Your argument is for regime change in most of Middle East, Africa, and some of Asia. This could very well be WWIII. The rest of the world often talks about "American arrogance". My experience in America and with Americans showed me that it is naivete more than arrogance - a naif belief in the American pie, that Americans are good and their enemies are evil, that wars are easy, etc. I think this is what leads to most of the conflicts with America and Europe.