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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (6913)	5/5/1999 8:39:00 PM
From: Paul Merriwether	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

<< On the other hand your comments on cleaning my own house is hypocritical and bigoted. I am an American. I've got Jeffery Dommer, Bundy, Eric Harris, Las Angeles Gangs etc in my house. >> 'k. i am sorry you took it that way. not (intentionally) being a bigot just pointing out that moslems have much more to fear from moslems than from the west. i apologize if you take exception to that. << Your comment about slavery is a lie but I would rather you get some education >> Really? I have read accounts of women from philipines, sri lanka, bangladesh being kept as "concubines" (and essentially slaves). if they ever get impregnated by their "masters" they are stoned under the draconian (moslem?) laws. << How many Iraqis have died since the US/UN blockade; is it a million human beings or maybe just half a million? >> If they get rid of Soddem, things would go north for them. At some point they will stop supporting that (kord and shiite) baby killing ogre(i know that my "name calling" annoys you, but the fact is that truth barbs!). << Saddam could feed his people if he cared instead of using money to buy weapons." Firstly, oil sales monies are subject to some 33% "tax" in reparations for Kuwait, >> methinks those reparations are quite just. he maliciously put half the country's oilwells on fire(or do you think those flares in kuwait is more western biased propaganda-- the opiate for stupid masses such as myself?). << Then more of this money is withheld by UN for giving to Kurds >> any why not? should the kurd kids starve to support the ever bulging gut of saddam? <<If we don't bomb Iraq, Saddam will use his WMD (weapons of mass destruction) against us or his neighbors or Israel. Saddam is rational. >> yes. whatever you say! << If there's retaliation against an American city, would it be Washington or New York, or maybe a smaller city. >> your point being? did you write this drivel(excuse me!) or just pasted it from your favorite website. it sounds like some kind of a puerile veiled threat but it could be pointless. so yes there is a possibility of a terrorist attack on the US. how does that germane to the present discussion? << Why does Saddam need to build atomic bombs or missiles when he can buy them on the black market? >> not easy as it sounds pal. the weapons in nuclear states are accounted for, and the other point is that soddem is working on delivery mechanism that we have to take out. the "smuggle in" is not a reliable delivery mechanism and can be seriously injurious to the perpetrators health! <<Why would any new Iraqi government have different national objectives? It too would want Kuwait, be anti-Israel, be trying to develop weapons equal to those of its neighbors and potential enemies to have defenses against Iran and Turkey >> they shall be unfit to govern iraq. and the unfit don't survive. ;) << Should America be a beacon or a policeman of the world? We can't be a policeman, because we can't mount a consistent, coherent "fair" interventionist policy. >> another fallacy. we've made an example outta iraq and now serbia. next time, just the threat should be sufficient! << If Saddam is such a threat to the whole world, then why is the whole world against us (bombing), even though our Secretary of State Madeleine Albright claimed that America was doing "what the world wants (bombing)." >> yeup. that's why we had a BROAD UN mandate for the gulf war! << Bombing won't take out Saddam's missiles, if it didn't succeed the last time with more tonnage of bombs dropped than upon Germany in World War II. >> hey, we can try!!! << Foreigners may retaliate against us. We can't go around killing others without some of their relatives or fellow nationals seeking vengeance upon us. >> so what do we do? sit in a nuclear/chemical warfare shelter or just sit in our basement? Anything else would be deemed "interventionist" by you... << Do we really imagine citizens can simply overthrow a totalitarian dictatorship? >> you know what? stranger things have happened. who would have thought that ceacescau(roumania) would meet his end the way he did? can't think off hand but lots of examples of dictators kicked out by grass roots efforts. << The real reason for proposed US Bombing "is US frustration with its dwindling credibility in Mideast politics. >> ok. thanks for your deep analysis! << There's no oil shortage either. Kuwait and Iraq together produced just 7% of the world's oil when Iraq was producing full tilt for world markets before the war. >> yeah. that's why the price of an oil barrel just doubled in the last 5 weeks. JUST 7%? 7% is a LOT. And do not forget Saudi oil production, and the iran oil production and the baby gulf state oil production is a LOT more than 7%! the oil prices went down only because the asian and latin american countries had to reduce their production capacity. unrelated to this discussion. << Saddam gassed his own people. Didn't our government also do that at WACO? >> The former was/IS the official policy of that government. the latter is an isolated ACCIDENT! if you are saying all this only to polemecise, more power to you. however, i sincerely hope you know the difference. << Who will be next that we bomb after Sudan and Afghanistan, Iran?>> we'll c when the time comes... << War has uncertain consequences. >> nothing you can solve with (enough) big bombs... ;). OK. Seriously, I agree with you on this one. I just think that the war in Iraq was necessary, and the factors involved justified the consequences(all off which were not pleasant). Listen. I truly feel sympathetic to the plight of innocent civilians in Iraq and elsewhere. I hope that you don't think my response above flippant, and i also think that you have made some good points(all of which I can't answer). However, unilaterally blaming the US(as you seem to be doing) or comparing Soddem's atrocities to Waco/ Ruby ridge(or whatever) is unfair(and you should acknowledge that). OK, I am off the soapbox now...