CNN Question (page 2)

lastcall

They just found some old buried chemical warheads..... the fact is that Saddam did use them in the past. There is no denying that fact

Agreed but no one is questioning that.

Euphemism

The question is based on a false premise. If Iraq did indeed have WMDs, that would still not have legalized the US going to war against them without sanction of the UN Security Council.

The simple fact is, under the UN Charter, it is illegal for any country to go to war--except in response to a belligerent act or an immediate threat, not a long-range threat such as Iraq may have presented--without authorization of the UN Security Council. So Bush's invasion of Iraq was illegal, even if incontrovertible evidence of a WMD program turns up.

But guess what? Clinton's military action against Serbia was also illegal. Do you hear CNN asking whether he should be tried as a war criminal?

I'm not defending Bush's actions. But they fall far short of war crimes (even the war crimes that have been committed by past American governments, such as in Vietnam and Cambodia).

Yerusalyim

The UN SECURITY COUNCIL BE DAMNED...any organization that puts Libya on it's Human Rights committee ...as it's head...and Iraq on it's disarmament committee...as it's head...is WORTHLESS.

THE US needs NO ONE's approval to defend itself...especially when three of those members are in violation of their own resolutions and selling arms and industrial equipment to Iraq.

THIS WAR was a continuation of the first war...Saddam was in violation of a ceasefire agreement he signed with THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...not the UN.

Euphemism

THIS WAR was a continuation of the first war...Saddam was in violation of a ceasefire agreement he signed with THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...not the UN.

Yeru... that's an interesting argument. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more play.

From what I can find on the 'net, there were apparently two cease-fire agreements... one with the US on February 28, 1991, and one with the UN on April 11.

I can't find the text of these agreements, however... if anyone can help me, that would be great!

lastcall

THIS WAR was a continuation of the first war...Saddam was in violation of a ceasefire agreement he signed with THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...not the UN.

Yeru, this is probably your most legitimate point. But we still used a 20 ton bomb to kill a fly. Besides, you are taking a legalistic point of view which all sides can beat to death.

I try to ask the question: What was the best way for the US ( considering our best interests and those of our allies { which incidentally are interwined} to handle Saddam?) What was the best way?

We failed my friend, we chose the last option when there were many others on the table.

Now I realize that you could debate that point with me, but I think it may boil down to a fundemental philisophical difference in the way people view the world in which we live.

Ultimately though, you must admit, the Bush administration will have to answer for some intelligence failures if real and whole WMDs are not found.

The UN SECURITY COUNCIL BE DAMNED

And that attitude does not do well for our stature in the world. But once again that is only an issue if you give a damn about our stature in the world community.........something tells me that you do not. Do we understand each other?

LC

Yerusalyim

And that attitude does not do well for our stature in the world. But once again that is only an issue if you give a damn about our stature in the world community.........something tells me that you do not. Do we understand each other?

You're right...I don't much care what the "world community" thinks when the world community does nonsense like appoint Iraq as head of the Disarmament Committee and Libya to head the Human Rights Commission.

It's hard to care what the world thinks when we're being oppossed in enforcing UN Sanctions by France...that is selling Missles to Iraq in contravention to those very sanctions...by Russia when Russia is selling military hardware to Iraq, and by Germany...who turns a blind eye to German companies selling industrial equipment...and quite possibly a centrefuge (needed to make a NUKE) to Iraq...all in contravention to the Sanctions this same "world community" imposed.

It seems everyone thinks it's the US that should play the game...well, let them start playing first. For my money (and it is my tax dollars) I'd be happy if the US withdrew from the UN in any but an observer role. Let France or Germany, or Russia flip the bill for the UN for a while.

AlanB

And anyway Saddam did use WMD on the Kurds -- so the question is irrelevant

As have members of NATO while other members were ordered to turn a blind eye.

Yerusalem........ !!!! I do not like making personal observations, however everything about your picture & posts suggests a particular type of American who is blindly patriotic, believes that the US has the right to do whatever they want and believes that somehow the US are better than anyone else. Here are some of your latest gems.

If it becomes clear that Russia and France were supplying weapons to Saddam until just weeks prior to the war

Where is the evidence for this? Total bollocks

THE US needs NO ONE's approval to defend itself...especially when three of those members are in violation of their own resolutions and selling arms and industrial equipment to Iraq.

Defend itself from what? What threat did Iraq pose to the US. Do not refer to 9/11 or Al Queda as there is NO link between Iraq and Al Queda other than the fact that both Bin Laden & Sadam Hussain were previously funded by the US.

and quite possibly a centrefuge (needed to make a NUKE)

Biggest load of paranoid crap....... (needed to make a NUKE)..... or to separate blood products into separate factions so that they could be transfused separatly into Jehovah's Witnesses <g>, or for medicine, or separation of oil products, laboratories, dyestuffs, soil samples, agriculture.... etc etc etc......

====

When is America going to wake up to the fact that 'they' are the biggest threat to world instability. Lowering their status in the world is what fuels the hatred that leads to attacks on US interests (not that I condone terrorism). We need to understand and build bridges between the west & Islamic countries rather than fuel hatred. Have America learned nothing from History.

A

Yerusalyim

Biggest load of paranoid crap....... (needed to make a NUKE)..... or to separate blood products into separate factions so that they could be transfused separatly into Jehovah's Witnesses <g>, or for medicine, or separation of oil products, laboratories, dyestuffs, soil samples, agriculture.... etc etc etc......

And still forbidden by the UN IMPOSED Sanctions!

When is America going to wake up to the fact that 'they' are the biggest threat to world instability. Lowering their status in the world is what fuels the hatred that leads to attacks on US interests (not that I condone terrorism). We need to understand and build bridges between the west & Islamic countries rather than fuel hatred. Have America learned nothing from History.

When are people like you going to realize that the Terrorists aren't interested in any type of dialouge or bridge building. The hatred is already there....anything we do other than completely withdraw from the world and convert to Islam will fuel the hatred of the radical muslims.

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