Posts by expatbrit

I think that all wealthy nations, not just America, have an obligation to stop people hurting one another, wherever it happens. Indeed this is the only legitimate purpose of government, imo.

You may reply that using force to do that is also a case of people hurting one another and thus defeats the object, but I consider this reality over ideology. People who will murder thousands will not respond to reason and negotiation and enlightened self-interest, and therefore must be removed for the safety of those who will.

So the brief answer to your question is yes.

Expatbrit

71

Bush Admin Bans Media Coverage of Dead Soldiers Returning..Why?

by Valis in

why would the pentagon suddenly stop all the media coverage of our dead troops coming home?

a little too close to election time maybe?

i hope this comes back to haunt bush and all of his war cronies and i hope they can live with all the dead that keep piling up every day.

expatbrit

Jim:

If tomorrow Georgey Bush and Tony Blair got up on the podium and made a speech which basically said "ha ha suckers, we fooled you into thinking that Saddam had WOMD's, when all we really wanted was the oil" I would still hold the position that the war was the right action to take, simply because it resulted in the downfall of Saddam Hussein.

I'm not naive enough to think that politicians conduct themselves based mainly on enlightened principle. But nor am I naive enough to think that the ends never justify the means. Sometimes they very much do. And if (and that's an if) it turns out that there was indeed prevarication, deceit and exaggeration, then the end result justifies those means, in my opinion. Indeed, we should be asking ourselves why it took such means to convince us of the necessity of war. Why was not the suffering of fellow humans enough? Are we that self-centred now in the wealthy West?

As for there being a plan in place, I have no idea what you are referring to. UN sanctions? The UN sanctions that killed half a million kids? Perhaps another 17 resolutions would have done the trick? Sorry for the sarcasm, but there was no effective plan in place to remove Saddam. Just endless chitchat and bluster.

Expatbrit

71

Bush Admin Bans Media Coverage of Dead Soldiers Returning..Why?

by Valis in

why would the pentagon suddenly stop all the media coverage of our dead troops coming home?

a little too close to election time maybe?

i hope this comes back to haunt bush and all of his war cronies and i hope they can live with all the dead that keep piling up every day.

expatbrit

Valis, I think it's an issue because anti-war people will try to use dead soldiers as reasons to disengage from Iraq and from the Middle East in general. The US doing this would be a disaster. I also can't fathom the selective reasoning of certain of the anti-war critics (and I don't include you here, btw) who can squeal so loudly about 100 dead, yet complacently stand aside and allow hundreds of thousands to die in the name of "peace".

If it's worth anything, I think that the West should be far more pro-active toward the developing world, both in terms of economic development and in terms of military intervention. In fact, if I suddenly had my way with politicians, the West would be involved in at least a dozen wars right now in various parts of the world, to get rid of regimes just like Saddams.

I think in the future, in hopefully more advanced times, historians will condemn the West, not for what it did, but for what it failed to do in the developing world.

Expatbrit

71

Bush Admin Bans Media Coverage of Dead Soldiers Returning..Why?

by Valis in

why would the pentagon suddenly stop all the media coverage of our dead troops coming home?

a little too close to election time maybe?

i hope this comes back to haunt bush and all of his war cronies and i hope they can live with all the dead that keep piling up every day.

expatbrit

I just think the idea that no one sees the bodies and everything gets glossed over...we hear about the deaths, but it appears that hasn't shaken enough US citizens to do something about the dead piling up.

5,000 people a month were dying when the Saddam regime was in power. That's a lot of dead piling up, yet it would seem not enough for the left wing to want to do anything about it.

Expatbrit