War on Iraq

[kalien]

I think that Bush decided to declare war first, justification second! what do people think?

[geofbob]

I'm not so ready to doubt Blair and Bush. Clearly, a lot depends on what the intelligence about Iraq's military capability actually shows, and none of us is privy to that. But not too surprisingly I'm prepared to believe Bush and Blair when they say Saddam is preparing weapons of mass destruction, rather than Saddam's protestations that he is not. (In their heart-of-hearts, do Einstein and Tartanwizard REALLY trust Saddam Hussein more than they trust Tony Blair?) This situation has great similarities with that of the early 1930s, when Winston Churchill was a voice in the wilderness, warning about Hitler and German rearmament. On that occasion the rest of the world let a bellicose tyrant prepare his war machine before taking action, and tens of millions died as a result. It would be tragic to let the same thing happen again.

[kalien]

Geofbob, i do not think that Einstein and Tartanwizard are more prepared to trust Saddam than Bush/Blair if anything trust no one! But it has to be said that the US's motives for war are questionable, their motives for anything now are questionable, its hard to believe but when they thought that Saddam was experimenting on bio-weapons there was a great hu-ha, yet it was the americans who got in the way of the biological weapons convention not to mention they were illegally experimenting on their own biological weapons! It must also be noted that it is a fact that the US govt since the Bush administration have wrecked more international treaties and ignored more UN conventions then the rest of the world has these last 20 odd years! Trust no one not even Blair! Besides there is no reason at present to suspect Saddam, and he is no stupid man he knows that if he starts a war he should be prepared to be nuked!

[Jens T]

The Bush/Cheney administration is dripping with oil people who go after what they want. The country with the second largest oil reserves in the world, next to Saudi Arabia, is Iraq. Whether Saddam is ousted through war or American-sponsored internal machinations, you can bet American oil companies are waiting in the wings.

[WaldoMcFroog]

This is a huge issue about which whole books have been written, but in a nutshell, yes I think Kanchan is correct is his/ her supposition. The reason Saddam has been demonised is not because he's a screwed up, evil, genoicidal maniac - which he undoubtedly is - but because he dared to opose the political will of the US. If you doubt this, check the foriegn policy of the US against countries which change from Pro-US interests to pro-their own interests - Noriega was another one. Known to be bankrolled by drug money, the US turned a blind eye, until the point when he changed his policy towards US investment. At this point he suddenly became the world's most evil despot, and a threat to US security (er... pardon? I hardly think so, etc) who had to be taken out. Saddam was the US's tool against Iraq, but when they started to encroach on the oil markets (which the US doesn't actually even need or use except as a tool of economic policy) their short comings were suddenly publicised... Check Noam Chomsky's Deferring Democracy if you're interested.

[Jens T]

The present U.S. government will supply another chapter to that never-ending book... I really question whether Saddam has the capability to build nuclear weapons. He can't develop a homegrown oil industry beyond just taking it out of the ground, and an awful lot of him money (that is, Iraq's money) goes into self-aggrandizement. How many palaces has he built for himself now? Yes, he's a cruel tyrant, but that's just a convenient excuse. If Mahatma Ghandi was leader of Iraq, the U.S. would find a way to oust him and install a puppet "democracy" so they could get their hands on the oil. Cheney, Bush et al are free enterprisers to the extreme. And now that there's no Soviet Union, who's gonna stop 'em? Ideology has nothing to do with this; pure, unadultered greed has everything to do with it, just as it has everywhere else they've gone.