quote:Originally posted by EdipisReks: i think it is pretty funny that anyone could blame the problems in the middle east with the divide between the wealthy and the poor "caused" by the "greed in the US (western world)". the sheikh's in saudia arabia and the nouveau riche in kuwait can share the wealth with their own poor countrymen anytime they want. and i say lets get saddam. anyone who thinks he's been spending his time sitting around being all nice and stopping being a threat to anyone is a damn fool.
Do your research. Since you're an undergrad history student and should understand the value of good research, I find your remarks particularly sad. You can even do a search on the word "caused" or "greed in the US" or Saddam on that transcipt, and you're not going to find a damn thing. I don't have a clue what you're referencing.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:But at the same time, he is not the threat by far for anyone than he was 11 years ago. A tiger without teeth.
Although much of what you say is true, why do you believe this particular part?
A simple assessment. 11 years ago, Saddam had all the weapons he had been provided by certain Western governments the Soviet Union, many of them quite modern. We can assume that much of it has been destroyed. An Iraqi Air Force, as far as I know, is quasi non-existent to date. We can't be sure which ways may have been used to smuggle new weapons into Iraq (maybe Iran), but compared to the time before 1991, that must have been extremely hard, even if Saddam can still pay for it.
I too think that he is still dangerous and may use whatever he has left for a suicide attack, but it is probably a rather poor threat compared to 1991. I don't think people in Israel have to be afraid this time. At least not more than usual when suicide assassins are running around who are obviously more dangerous than a guided missile. And that's something we may never exclude and we can't eliminate by eliminating Hussein.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:We can assume that much of it has been destroyed
We can assume that a great deal of his conventional warfare equipment was destroyed. This is true. However, there is a rather large black-market arms supplier in the area, called China.
This also does not apply to his unconventional weapons, the WMD, because the inspectors were consistently hindered from inspecting "sensitive" areas even during those years they were 'permitted' inside Iraq. Being shown a few blown-up missile bits and being told "we blew up all those missiles you wanted to look at" would not engender confidence -- at least not in anyone who was doing his job properly.
Since we KNOW that Hussein has been importing or trying to import banned articles which have as their sole purpose the facilitation of the production of WMD, since he has maintained a base for training terrorists, as well as being a known financier of terrorist activities, since he has a known and demonstrated hatred for the US, and since he has repeatedly acted in violation of his promises up to and including repeated "suicidal" firing on coalition aircraft, I'm afraid my estimate of his threat level must remain much higher than yours.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by First of Two: We can assume that a great deal of his conventional warfare equipment was destroyed. This is true. However, there is a rather large black-market arms supplier in the area, called China.
Get off the high horse. You're going to complain that China is selling too many weapons. Here's a dose of reality from your own state department. Arms Sales Statistics
The US sells more than a hundred times what China sells. 33.0 billion vs. 0.3 billion. I mean bloody hell, Canada sells more than what China sells. If Bush tried to tell China to stop selling arms while the US sells 64% of arms sales in the world compared to all of East Asia at 1.3%...China would laugh at him, and from an objective point of view, they'd be right.
Maybe you should be more concerned that the largest American arms customer is Saudi Arabia.....home of the majority of the terrorist hijackers. Just a thought.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:You're going to complain that China is selling too many weapons
HEY! EVERYONE! MUCUS IS TELEPATHIC! He can predict the future course of conversations!
Next time, read my post.
#1 Part you missed: Black Market. You presume to tell me that you know the extent of China's black market sales?
(Although I should have added that the arms black market in the former USSR's Central Asian Republics [And likely, that of central Russia itself] does a fair amount of business as well.)
The rest is raving. Save it for an argument it fits in, rather than a smokescreen.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: Iraq made a surprise offer late last night to provide "unconditional access" to United Nations inspectors, raising hopes of a peaceful outcome to the Gulf crisis.
But today it emerged that the offer only applied to military bases - which could let Saddam hide chemical and biological arms stockpiles elsewhere.
quote:Ali Muhsen Hamid claimed Iraq was being sincere, but he stipulated that civilian sites would not be available to the inspectors. "We support anywhere, any military site (for inspections), but not as some people have suggested for inspections against hospitals, against schools."
Hospitals are among key sites for inspections because of evidence that Saddam uses health laboratories to manufacture viruses for biological weapons.
quote:No10 pointed out that during the last, failed, round of inspections, the Iraqi president redesignated about half of his most secret military installations as " presidential palaces", ruling them out of bounds to inspectors.
Iraq capitalised on the disarray to mount a propaganda offensive. Tariq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister, said the offer "thwarted" any reasons for a military attack.
Of course, regardless of the facts surrounding the "offer", the Russians, Germans, and French are practically stumbling over themselves to be the ones who pull back first.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Whoa dude, down with the unchanneled hostility. One might think that you have some serious issues to work out with your mother....or just cut back on the caffeine.
All I was simply pointing out was that your complaint,
quote: However, there is a rather large black-market arms supplier in the area, called China.
is perhaps a bit misplaced. While China has black market sales, I rather doubt they'd be 100 times what they report. That would be something....oh...I dunno....your US State Department might be complaining about.
quote: Even worse, in 1997 the New York Daily News reported that Iraq had deployed Israeli-developed, Chinese PL-8 missiles in the no-fly zones, endangering American pilots...
I think the Bush administration should attack Israel to prevent its distribution of weapons to "terrorists."
In your own words from "Happy Sept. 11th":
quote: Of course, I'm just being a bastard
Oh whoops, lets try that again.
quote: Of course, I'm just being a bastard... But it's funny how, when you expand ideals that seem applicable to ONE situation, they don't always seem applicable to similar ones.
OHMYGOD!!! We're doing it again!!! Invade us now before it's too late!!!!
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
mmmm, let's see, invade Canada, then give it to Mexico in trade for the south-western US....
That means we can still have ripped them off....
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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