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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (349275)	8/31/2007 12:11:46 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573135

It was part of the treaty they signed.

To: combjelly who wrote (349275)	8/31/2007 12:13:23 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573135

The lessons of WWII In response to Monday's letter, "McGovern for president," Paul L. Whiteley Sr. seems to be applying the wrong lessons of history to the Iraq war. It's not the Vietnam War, but the lessons of World War II that are applicable to Iraq. World War II was caused by our inability to enforce the Treaty of Versailles after World War I against Germany and the European allies who stood idly by as Germany began to dramatically rebuild its military in clear violation of the treaty. By comparison, in Iraq we have had three successive administrations since our 1991 victory in ejecting Iraq from Kuwait that have consistently held Iraq to be accountable to it's armistice agreement obligations. Even President Clinton launched air strikes in 1994 and again 1998 in response to Iraq's open defiance and acts of war against the United States and Britain. In fact, Mr. Clinton used the very same justifications for those air strikes as were used for the resumption of hostilities in our 2003 invasion. So, after 12 years of diplomatic efforts and 17 U.N. resolutions, it's clear that Iraq had no intention of living up to its obligations. Just like after World War I, Europe not only stood idly by in typical laissez-faire fashion, but undermined us by attempting to profit from the sanctions through backroom deals with Saddam Hussein. World War II could have been prevented by a much smaller-scale action, and the former Sen. George McGovern's service and the sacrifice of millions of lives could have been prevented had we and our European allies acted much earlier. Likewise, the Duelfer report concluded that Iraq was preparing to reconstitute its weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD) program as soon as the sanctions had ended. Furthermore, we have found that Iraq had not destroyed its WMD produced pre-1991, which it was required to do under the armistice agreement. The political will to maintain the sanctions was collapsing prior to our 2003 invasion. Given the changed paradigm of September 11, I am convinced that going into Iraq has saved us far more lives than it could have cost us at a future date. Mr. Whiteley says, "It is wrong and arrogant to think America can use its military to force democracy on another nation." I presume that Mr. Whiteley is very disappointed in our occupation of Japan after World War II. Japan, like Iraq, does not have a history of a Jeffersonian democracy yet seems to be flourishing. Once we purge the chaotic influences in Iraq, that same success will follow. Choose victory. SERGE WING Alexandria