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 : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (17955)	3/9/2003 2:19:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 25898

Columbia's Edward Said has an interesting column... Who is in Charge? A Tiny, Unelected Group, Supported by Powerful, Unrepresentative Minorities by Edward Said* Published on Saturday, March 8, 2003 by the Al-Ahram Weekly commondreams.org <<...The Bush administration's relentless unilateral march towards war is profoundly disturbing for many reasons, but so far as American citizens are concerned the whole grotesque show is a tremendous failure in democracy. An immensely wealthy and powerful republic has been hijacked by a small cabal of individuals, all of them unelected and therefore unresponsive to public pressure, and simply turned on its head. It is no exaggeration to say that this war is the most unpopular in modern history. Before the war has begun there have been more people protesting it in this country alone than was the case at the height of the anti- Vietnam war demonstrations during the 60s and 70s. Note also that those rallies took place after the war had been going on for several years: this one has yet to begin, even though a large number of overtly aggressive and belligerent steps have already been taken by the US and its loyal puppy, the UK government of the increasingly ridiculous Tony Blair...>> *Edward Said is professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, New York. His books include Orientalism and Covering Islam. His latest work, Parallels and Paradoxes, cowritten with Daniel Barenboim, will be published by Bloomsbury in March. E-Mail:sf38@columbia.edu

To: PartyTime who wrote (17955)	3/9/2003 2:20:18 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

You are rude and showing yourself as nothing other than a WarHawk. You bet I'm rude when I see people like yourself ridiculing others as warhawks and offering nothing "pie in the sky" minimalist solutions to deadly serious problems... You do NOT confront people like Saddam with half measures. You dominate him and force him to submit or die, just as he has done with everyone else in Iraq. That's the only thing he understands. I'm trying to prevent FAR MORE BLOODSHED that awaits the world down the road should Saddam or his sons wind up succeeding in obtaining a nuclear shield to hide behind... Desert Storm only ended as the result of a cease fire, not a peace treaty. And Saddam has spent the past 12 years violating that cease fire... But because the UN has been unwilling to enforce that law, the entire basis of these UNSC resolutions has been undermined. There is is the persistent belief by people like yourself that "since we didn't enforce it before, we shouldn't enforce it now".. Or that we shouldn't "overdue" it by staging "too many" forces on Saddam's border.. GEEZUS... Maybe I need another beer PT and should just relax.. But how you can sit there and think Saddam gives a rat's ass about your limp-wristed version of forcing compliance of 1441, just defies all logic. I really can respect people who are against going to war. As someone who has spent the past 20 years working in, with, or around military people, the last thing I want to see is my friends an acquaintances possibly dying in combat (or any other way).. I don't know of ANY SANE member of the military who dreams of going to war and finding glory in killing... But I, and they, also know that the only reason we have a demcracy in a world of despots and totalitarianism, is because we've been willing to fight, and die, for it.... While there are no "good wars".. there ARE "just" ones... I hope that one of these days you'll look back and recognize just how necessary ridding ourselves of Saddam Hussein is... And maybe how foolish you are to drag out those well-worn arguments that somehow a democratic Israel is a greater threat than a bunch of totalitarian Arab regimes. Hawk