That last comment by me took a while to vent and was actually in response to nick saying it was our fault for not acting sooner. ???
Terry, How do you REALLY feel?
Terry,
What a load of CRAP. You are no better than those that you admonish. You lump anyone who wears a liberal label into the far extreme left. You wail against anybody that does not have your same point of view. I am all for debate on the issues and believe that those debates and discussions are for the best. Anything that sheds the light of day on the way our government works and treats their citizens is good. It keeps loons, extremists, and dictators from making inroads and weakening our country. If the extreme right or the extreme left every take power, we are in trouble.
Just as you don’t like the extreme left agenda (whatever that is in your mind) I don’t care for the extreme right.(whatever that is in my mind).
It is almost a New Year folks. Let’s try to make this a year of positive developments that help everyone achieve a full life.
Best to all this New Year.
Steve
Bravo Steve! Totally awesome post.
Let’s all resolve to change the nature of this BB. That would be an awesome thing.
Terry
My CNN was covering Saddam’s execution all last night and up this morning at 6:00 am guess what more coverage.
Good analogy.
I don’t think the analogy is quite right. We already had the serial killer in the first Gulf war and let him loose to kill again for 12 more years. Worse, our military was ordered to stand down and just watch as he started killing again immediately. I say we get out of the U.N. and close down the State Dept. instead of hanging a sicko who did what not only we saw him do in the past, knew he would do again, let him loose to do again, watched as he did it, and did nothing to stop him even though we could have.
The reason I agreed with the analogy (and still do) is because the crimes committed by the late dictator were against the people who allowed him to continue to govern. It was with their permission…not the government of this country…that he was allowed to rule.
Everyone deserves the government they have. Just like many home inspectors who feel safer operating under the control of the state, the citizens of Iraq felt the need for a dictator. They indulged his thirst for blood in exchange for the security he provided their land.
Appropriately, it was at their hands…not ours…that his life was ended.
I agree. Everyone does get the government they deserve.
But every now and then, at some stage, when an oppressive tyrant takes his country to the point of creating a Holocost, does the world’s lone SuperPower not have some humanitary duty to intervene with military force?
BTW, the U.S. government does not agree with our thinking that everyone deserves the government they have and I offer asylum as proof.
I think we did that, Nick.
Now, we are (still) in the beginning stages of returning their government to the Iraqi people.
What do you want to bet that, within 10 years, they have placed another dictator in power?
When our country decided to overthrow a dictator (King George), our factions came together first. Not all colonies joined in the overthrow. Some decided to stay loyal to the crown and, today, refer to themselves as CANACHI, I believe. Success came from a united people under the rule of a dictator who wished to end it. The other world superpower at the time (the French) had little to do with helping us after the war.
I think that outside intervention (as referred to by you and accomplished by the US) will prove to be nothing more than putting a bandaid on a heart attack. These people will return to the only form of government that they know…and, apparently, deserve.
Did Japan reinstate an Emperor and did Germany reinstate a military dictator?
Asylum serves to protect the political minorities who, unlike ours, have no protected rights and whose political views coincide with ours.
For example, the Shah of Iran took asylum in the USA when his regime was overthrown. Pinochet, however, could not. Neither could Eichmann.
Who wrote their constitutions and governed their countries during the period in which they were drafted?
Then, who established their economic systems?
Big differences with those two examples.
They were actually defeated and they surrendered.
They attacked us first.
Their cultures where more homogeneous in nature.
Iraq is made up of three competing groups, Shiite, Sunni and Kurds who don’t play well with each other. Th dictator maintained order by instilling fear in the populous. Now they are all vying for power an autonomy. It’s quite a mess. Remember the Balkans. Centuries old hatered where fired up after there was no longer Soviet occupation. Eastern Europe still has a long way to go.
I think we where justified in going to war in Iraq but the concept of nation building is difficult when peoples don’t share the desire to be free. Let’s remeber to put this war in the context of the global war on terror which is still only in it’s infancy.
[quote=jmckenna1]
Saddam To Be Hanged - Within Hours.
Great. Now let’s finish the job, by say, impeaching G Bush.
Wow…now you just KNOW that’s gotta STING a bit…ouch !
Also, don’t forget, Americans were absolutely behind their government at that time. Harry Truman had a 99.9%(or close to it) approval rating when he announced he had authorized the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Americans cheered when they learned that the US was “occupying” germany and Japan after their surrender.
That’s not the case, now. Senators and Congressman from both parties saw the same intelligence the President saw and jumped on the bandwagon in authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. How many jumped ship and have called for a pullout after their constituents started calling? Has CNN covered the discovery of both weapons-grade enriched uranium and cache of sarin gas in the desert south of Baghdad?
Anyway - WWII was a different era, and the war criminals were treated differently.