To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2965 ) 8/5/2007 11:26:26 PM From: SARMAN Read Replies (1) | Respond to How is Israel a threat to other Arab countries? They have the nukes.. they have the air force.. they have an effective army... They could have laid waste to everyone of their Arab neighbors decades ago. And they've never officially threatened to wage a war of eradication upon ANY Arab country (not even the Palestinians).. Saudi Arabia? Well, what can we say? We've supported them because it worked to our advantage to do so in an era of US/Europe vs Warsaw Pact. It was the same reason we supported the Shah. But I'm certainly not fond of the Saudis and their "faustian bargain" with their Wahabbi clerics. They are the head of the snake with regard to militant Islam, but it's obviously better to pressure them than to wage a war against all of Islam, should we overthrow them (who would we replace them with, except maybe the Hashemites). And before that it was the PLO... (which was the reason the Israelis went into Lebanon in the first place). All with Syrian complicity.. But now it's Iran and Syria supporting Hizbullah.. Syria supports them because it destabilises Lebanon and assists their long-standing claim to sovereignty over the Lebanese, while Iran sees them as a Shi'a stronghold that permits them to wage a proxy war against Israel. And where was the Arab world as the Syrians occupied Lebanon for decades? No where to be seen.. So what is the US policy in Lebanon? Only that it remain a sovereign, and preferably democratic state. Our only involvement there has been at the request of the UNSC. I hardly see that as a policy that should be opposed by ANYONE, let alone the majority of the Arab world. If any western power has an agenda there, it would have been France under Chirac (I'm not sure Sarkozy shares this same policy). Thirdly, to dismantle any Al Qai'da related groups within Iraq and to terminate that government's support for Terrorism. I've shown you that, in 1993, Saddam ordered his intelligence director to reach out to Arab terrorist groups for the purpose of attacking American interests "in Arab lands", including Somalia. This was an outright declaration of war against the US, as well as a violation of the UNSC cease fire, which forbade Iraqi involvement with terrorist groups. Thus, it in the DIRECT interest of the US to prevent Iraq from supporting terrorist networks, whether directly, financially, or by providing training and logistics. This is clearly BS. The international community has STRONGLY SUPPORTED Lebanese independence for DECADES now.. Came a long way? Or merely adopted the same oppressive securtiy state that they accused the Shah of having instituted? There is NO WAY that Iran is better off now than it was under the Shah, no matter how oppressive he was. I know this from the many Iranian people I've known, now living in exile in the US and elsewhere, as well as the reports we're seeing coming from Iran right now. Please document where the US sold mines to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. In fact, please document where the US, under official policy, directly supplied offensive weaponry to Saddam in violation of congressional prohibitions? Biological samples, supposedly provided as medical related material does not count, nor would intelligence related materials. We share those with most countries that ask (when it meets our combined interests).
