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

To: michael97123 who wrote (159906)	3/31/2005 12:10:00 PM
From: Orcastraiter	Respond to of 281500

My personal viewpoint is that democracy and freedom can be exampled more effectively through peaceful means. I wouldn't disagree that the war has made some impact in this regard too, but I believe that it's much more ineffective than other methods. You certainly have a lot less collateral damage. When one nation threatens another nation...it's your right and responsibility to your country to defend it. Clearly Saddam couldn't muster an attack on one of his neighbors...much less the US. And when one nation practices tyranny on their own people...it's the responsibility of the free nations of the world to insist upon reforms, and to assist an end to tyranny when the country's people are in a struggle. In the case of Iraq...there was no internal struggle. No organized resistance to Saddam existed. Why was that? It's a very important question to ask. But even sans an internal resistance, the free nations of the world still have a responsibility to promote human rights. In the case of Iraq much more needed to be done diplomatically. More pressure needed to be brought to bear on Saddam. I'm fed up with the right wingers who use the "12 years argument" and the failure of sanctions. Because this is a straw man which they use to justify the war. The "12 years" were 12 years of neglect. 12 years of an absence of any coherent policy. A void. A place where Saddam was allowed to squirm and wiggle his way to continuing to put the yoke on his people. Now I know I will be accused by the Nadines of the world as being a squishy leftist. Yep...me and General Powell...a couple of leftists for sure. I was heartened to read the recent interview with Powell where he details the internal Whitehouse struggle between diplomatic solutions and military solutions. Well it was Powell...the lone voice for the diplomatic solution...backed up of course by a strong commitment to not allow WMD, or human right violations, or any "real terrorist threat". We can now see how costly the military option is. Especially when it does not meet the test of the Powell Doctrine. I thank Mr. Powell for his service to the country...and I only wish that his voice was listened to. The one voice of sanity has been flushed out of the Whitehouse...which gives me great cause for concern for the future. Orca