re: International Law & the UN
Saddam & Iraq have defied now 17 UN resolutions.
And Israel has defied at least 68 UN resolutions and has nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and has repeatedly invaded its neighbors and annexed sovereign territory and stolen occupied lands as well as massacred innocent civilians. It also reportedly has nuclear equipped submarines capable of launching against any country on earth. So who should be first in line for a preemptive attack on Israel?
Saddam broke International Law with a brutal invasion of Kuwait and when he used chemical and biological weapons on his own citizens and when he lobbed Scud Missles into Israel.
The invasion of Kuwait was only after he got the go ahead from the US... twice.
Similarly the war with Iran was with the US's blessing and support since it's friendly government under the Shah of Iran had recently been overthrown and US interests in Iran seized. It was also not without cause at least from Iraq's point of view:
"By late 1979, Tehran was pushing the Kurdish and Shiite populations in Iraq to revolt and topple Saddam, and Iranian operatives were trying to assassinate senior Iraqi officials. Border clashes became increasingly frequent by April 1980, largely at Iran’s instigation.
Facing a grave threat to his regime, but aware that Iran’s military readiness had been temporarily disrupted by the revolution, Saddam launched a limited war against his bitter foe on September 22, 1980. His principal aim was to capture a large slice of territory along the Iraq-Iran border, not to conquer Iran or topple Khomeini. “The war began,” as military analyst Efraim Karsh writes, “because the weaker state, Iraq, attempted to resist the hegemonic aspirations of its stronger neighbor, Iran, to reshape the regional status quo according to its own image.”
foreignpolicy.com
Chemical weapons and the means to manufacture them were supplied by the US, UK and other European countries. Details of those firms and countries involved were thought to have been set out in the report sent to the UN by Iraq but deleted by the US.
"THE United States edited out more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's
11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitised version
to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council.
sundayherald.com;
"U.S. SUPPLIES, CALIBRATES AND ENDORSES USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ" gulfwarvets.com
Also subsequent investigation by the CIA found that the gassing deaths were more likely to have been caused by the Iranians and not the Iraqi's as detailed in the Federation of American Scientists report:
......... Blood agents were allegedly responsible for the most
infamous use of chemicals in the war—the killing of Kurds at
Halabjah. Since the Iraqis have no history of using these two
agents-and the Iranians do-we conclude that the Iranians
perpetrated this attack. It is also worth noting that lethal
concentrations of cyanogen are difficult to obtain over an area
target, thus the reports of 5,000 Kurds dead in Halabjah are
suspect.
fas.org;
It contains a pretty good explanation of poison gasses and their use and is worth the time to read it considering the threats we are under today:
A more detailed report of Saddams Gassings is here: polyconomics.com
Where were the Tree-hugging Eco-freaks when he lit Kuwait's Oil Fields afire ?
"During the past six years, the American Gulf War Veterans Association has received numerous reports from veterans stating that US forces were responsible for the setting of the oil well fires at the end of the Gulf War."
thepowerhour.com
Where were the apologists when Saddam launched Scud Missles into Israel in the last Gulf War ?
Why shouldn't he have attacked Israel? They were encouraging the war and hosting American bases there who were supporting the attack on Iraq and had attacked Iraq previously in 1981 when they destroyed, without provocation, the nuclear facility he was building at Osirak. If you would argue that it was to remove his ability to manufacture the components of nuclear weapons then you might also agree (but I doubt it) that they should be removed from Israel too. Manny argue that Israel has waged war by proxy on Iraq using the US as its big stick. Saddam's aim was to try to bring Israel into the War directly which would probably have led to the coalition falling apart with the Arab nations refusing to participate or even siding with Iraq. Strategically given the players it was a good tactical move on his part. It failed but I don't think you can fault his reasoning if that is what it was.
I'll tell you where they were lately - they were the loudest voices crying that "our Government" should have prevented 9/11 !
They were the ones shrieking the loudest about - why didn't we ACT upon our covert INTELLIGENCE INFO !?!?!?!?!?
How come were now back to 9-11?? As if there is any connection between Iraq and 9-11. If your government had information that there was to be an attack of course they should have prevented it. What kind of argument are you trying to put forward in ridiculing people who want to know if their government procedures failed or worse were deliberately put on hold to let the disaster happen as a provocation for war. Even now, almost 18 months after 9-11 an investigation is having great difficulty in getting access to classified information about that day and what preceded it.
tribnet.com
But that wasn't the only "terrorist act" of 2001 there was the Anthrax letters which threw the country into chaos and where has that investigation gone. All of a sudden it was American made anthrax, and the "prime suspect"... according to some... who was apparently seen on surveillance video coming out of the weapons lab well after his security clearance had been cancelled was one Dr. Phillip Zack but there is no investigation into his involvement. Could it possibly be, as some web sites contend, because he is Jewish and therefore perhaps has dual citizenship in the US and Israel? whatreallyhappened.com
...and NOW - they're the same ones telling us we CAN'T act upon our covert intelligence info to prevent future domestic Terrorist Acts !?!?!?!?!?
By all means act on intelligence but the public have seen that what is promoted as intelligence has often been contrived, fabricated and consisted of plagiarized old student papers in attempts to justify and support what would otherwise be unacceptable actions of the government by the people it pretends to serve. Colin Powell's presentations to the UN have been dissected by others including Hans Blix and shown to be shallow and without merit while the US's own intelligence operatives are complaining of how information is being deliberately distorted by the politicians to meet their own ends.
On any single day of the year you could dip your hand into the law enforcement departments around the country and come up with a hand full of incidents which could be described as potential terrorist events. From thefts of explosives to missing ag-spray aircraft, suspicious foreigners, stolen vehicles (potential car bombs). And anyone with an interest in keeping this terror going in the US has only to blow up a gas station or pipeline and phone a talk show in the name of "The United Moslems Against Everything" (a previously unheard of group) to get the threat level moved up a notch.
....and you know what ? - they'll be the same ones asking for the impeachment of GW Bush - WHEN, not if...the next domestic Terror attack kills 30,000, or 300,000 instead of 3,000....and when instead of merely rebuilding a section of the Pentagon - our entire Capital becomes a nuclear wasteland - thanks to Saddams final nuclear solution that he would be all to happy to share with any number of global Terrorist groups.
And perhaps they will be correct in calling for his impeachment if it is found that he deliberately allowed a terrorist event to happen. It is not only the perpetrators of an event but those who stand by and let it happen for their own reasons who must be found and punished. And it is not only impeachable but treasonous and perhaps proceedings should also be directed at Clinton for his transfer of technology to China. But I doubt it will happen... but at some time in the future I suspect there will be a return to reason and the main players will be removed by their own supporters to sever the trail of evidence and to cut embarrassing investigations short. The pendulum will swing back eventually.
What would have happened if we failed to respond to Pearl Harbor ?
And what would have happened if America hadn't threatened Japan with an oil embargo in July 1941. Radhabinod Pal, one of the judges in the post-war Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (run exclusively by the Americans, but meant to parallel the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leaders) said later that the US had started the war with embargoes that were a "clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence."
counterpunch.org
What would have happened if we didn't land on the shores of Normandy and march into Hitlers Germany ?
Alternately what would have happened if England had accepted Germanys offer to end WW I two years after it began. An offer of a negotiated peace.
"Not a shot had been fired on German soil. Not one enemy soldier had crossed the border into Germany. And yet, Germany was offering England peace terms. They offered England a negotiated peace on what the lawyers call a status quo ante basis. That means: "Let's call the war off, and let everything be as it was before the war started." England, in the summer of 1916 was considering that -- seriously. They had no choice. It was either accepting this negotiated peace that Germany was magnanimously offering them, or going on with the war and being totally defeated.
While that was going on, the Zionists in Germany, who represented the Zionists from Eastern Europe, went to the British War Cabinet and -- I am going to be brief because it's a long story, but I have all the documents to prove any statement that I make -- they said: "Look here. You can yet win this war. You don't have to give up. You don't have to accept the negotiated peace offered to you now by Germany. You can win this war if the United States will come in as your ally." The United States was not in the war at that time. We were fresh; we were young; we were rich; we were powerful.
They told England: "We will guarantee to bring the United States into the war as your ally, to fight with you on your side, if you will promise us Palestine after you win the war." In other words, they made this deal: "We will get the United States into this war as your ally. The price you must pay is Palestine after you have won the war and defeated Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey." Now England had as much right to promise Palestine to anybody, as the United States would have to promise Japan to Ireland for any reason whatsoever.
jfkmontreal.com
We wouldn't have had either WW II or the present problems in Palestine and the Holocaust would never have happened.
or if Internationally, according to the UK Daily Express, Jews hadn't declared war on Germany on the 24th March 1933 and called for and carried out a boycott of German goods by Jews around the world and therefore economic warfare against Germany. Would there have even been a Second World War?
ety.com
We can play "what if" all day.
Modern Technology has eliminated time & distance.
Wow! Back to the Future and not one mention of it in the press where can I invest?
That huge Ocean on both sides of America, that for decades has separated "us" from "them" and the rest of the world's problems...has now been bridged.
Point of fact... there are three oceans and there's no bridge with the exception of the ice cap. And you have always and will always need "them" to soak up your ever increasing debt issues until such time as "they" say no more and then we'll see what happens and where the powers that be, behind the powers that get themselves elected, will move their focus. My bet is China... 5 maybe ten years tops, maybe a lot less. As for the world's problems... the US and its backers have been instrumental in creating the majority of those problems. IMHO of course.
3,000+ died on American soil on September 11th and in case no one noticed..."war" was brought to the homeland by those that hate not just America, but all of the freedoms, all of the technology and all of the abundance that a free, democratic, captilistic system produces...that is what they are at War against...our way of life as a people and as a Country...and hiding in our suburban, gated soccer-mom communities in denial; wishing it would just all go away...isn't going to prevent the next "when, not if" domestic terrorist act...only action in taking out the source of the funding, the technologic development & distribution source of WMD's and those regimes sponsoring, financing, or aiding Terrorism will...and that is exactly what GW Bush is going to do...and the world will be a safer place for both those who choose to live in fantasyland and those who choose to live in reality.
No... It's a war for control of the oil and Dollar hegemony and also to take domestic focus away from a disastrous economy and a governmental system which no longer serves its people but special interest groups. But under the new Homeland Security Act you won't dare discuss it either on-line or on the telephone or even among people you think are friends because you will be branded as a traitor, unpatriotic and anti-something and then... too late... you will turn around and see what you have lost. America has not been as advertised for years if not generations, it isn't a place it's an idea... at least for many of those who aspire for something better than what they have currently. And it's present actions are destroying not only the image but the "Idea" for many less fortunate and that is why people are marching around the world. They are not pro-Saddam they are pro-America as perceived through its Bill-of-Rights and Constitution and they would like to see you return to those ideals so that they may return to theirs.
Time Europe Poll as of this morning:
Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
North Korea 5.6 %
Iraq 6.7 %
The United States 87.7 %
Total Votes Cast: 625,974
time.com |
