Quote:
Originally posted by Shadowborn
This was apparently a commentary on NPR last week by PETER FREUNDLICH.
All right, let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly. We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored. We're going to wage war to preserve the UN's ability to avert war. The paramount principle is that the UN's word must be taken seriously, and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then by gum, we will. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend. Am I getting this right?
Further, if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq is to vitiate the democracy of the Security Council, then we are honor-bound to do that too, because democracy, as we define it, is too important to be stopped by a little thing like democracy as they define it.
Also, in dealing with a man who brooks no dissension at home, we cannot afford dissension among ourselves. We must speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein's failure to allow opposing voices to be heard. We are sending our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point that might does not make right, as Saddam Hussein seems to think it does. And we are twisting the arms of the opposition until it agrees to let us oust a regime that twists the arms of the opposition. We cannot leave in power a dictator who ignores his own people. And if our people, and people elsewhere in the world, fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.
Listen. Don't misunderstand. I think it is a good thing that the members of the Bush administration seem to have been reading Lewis Carroll. I only wish someone had pointed out that "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" are meditations on paradox and puzzle and illogic and on the strangeness of things, not templates for foreign policy. It is amusing for the Mad Hatter to say something like, `We must make war on him because he is a threat to peace,' but not amusing for someone who actually commands an army to say that.
As a collector of laughable arguments, I'd be enjoying all this were it not for the fact that I know--we all know--that lives are going to be lost in what amounts to a freak, circular reasoning accident. |
I found this post to be the only reason to smile today. The reality of today's events have left people riveted and appalled, then again some in jubilation as they praise the actions and will of a man that will lead their nation to victory for peace. Hmm.. I must have missed that news insert where Iraq declared war on the United States. I guess one can somehow miss such significant bits of information as one carries on with daily life. Oh, there was no war declared on America courtesy of Saddam Hussein? Intriguing... so why in Heaven's name is he deliberately instructing men to kill? What will a judge say to a criminal who is up for murder...
"But your honour, he had what I wanted.. so I killed him".
"But that is against the law, that is inconceivable!!"
"But hey, Bush did it, why can't I?"
The sad realities of this unlawful war reaches far beyond the borders of Iraq, this war is creating further hate and bias in countries where the racial divides have always been tenuous but tolerable for the most part recently. The unity between Muslims do not need geographical borders of distinction, and when you're dealing with fundamentalists you are creating offshoot wars instantly. You're killing Muslim people; therefore there will be a direct attack wherever possible. Does Bush consider this? Does he even care about this? Cape Town is a huge American and British tourist destination, and we also have a huge number of Muslim inhabitants, of those there certainly are fundamentalists/extremists who have already in the past attacked civilians in their aim to retaliate against America. This war will instigate these type of reactions the world over. People are not only likely to die in Iraq, but anywhere in the world where Muslims feel justified to declare Jihad. Bush has brought this upon himself and the whole world. He would have waged war regardless of total disarmament. He merely wished to pave the way for being in more control weapons' wise.
What is the Nuclear Weapons status of America? Has it laid down its biological weapons? Where does the East get their plans for such mass destruction weaponry from? The West.
The facade under which this war was waged makes it even more sickening and frightening, greed is such a killer of conscience and true humanitarianism.
These actions are not in the name of Human Rights, for not too far from here there is a man, fascist and tyrannical enough to warrant international intervention, albeit not through brutal war, but intervention nonetheless. Yet what does Bush have to gain? Certainly no oil reserves, so why should he bother?!