-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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There is tremendous ignorance on the Middle East in our country. We think all people of the region are the same so to our thinking it's not ridiculous if there is connection between Iraq and Al Queda. For others, especially those who live in the region, there are religious differences between these two entities. Perhaps as big as the separation between Catholics and Protestants in northern Ireland.
This war has nothing to do with oil nor the freedom of Iraqi people. This is revenge for the attempted murder of former President Bush in 1993. Revenege is a powerful narcotic for a neurotic son raised to believe in the greatness of his own family.
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
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"This war has nothing to do with oil nor the freedom of Iraqi people."
Disagreed and agreed, respectively.
Registered: Nov 1999
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Oil is a sweet plus, if the Americans are able to wrestle the contracts for oil drilling and exploration away from the Russians and the French.
Registered: Sep 2002
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If the US unilaterally invades Iraq, there will be no question of drilling rights. Even if they get UN backing, they'll have no trouble arguing that France and Russia get nothing, since they hindered the "war effort" in the first place.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air force, and now has an army one-fifth the size of 12 years ago, which even then proved totally inept at defending the country?
How about: "They both tried to wipe out ethnic groups within their borders?"
Hitlers borders kept expanding, so he got bigger numbers, and most didn't know till the allies got there, whereas SH's gassing of the Kerds got out quickly.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
How about a difference between Hitler and Saddam?
A few bright boys got together and stopped Saddam when he tried to take over his Sudetenland (Kuwait.)
You know, if we wanted the oil so badly, we could have taken it in 1991.
Or we could just lift the sanctions and have it at a much lower cost. Of course, this would hand Saddam the victory and guarantee that no reform ever takes place in Iraq...
We already have enough troops in Kuwait to take their oil.
-------------------- "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
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quote:Or we could just lift the sanctions and have it at a much lower cost. Of course, this would hand Saddam the victory and guarantee that no reform ever takes place in Iraq...
We already have enough troops in Kuwait to take their oil.
You mean like the great reforms that took place in Kuwait after they were liberated. The normal citizens of Iraq were better off then the normal citizens of kuwait before Iraq invaded. Had we left Iraq alone, the Kuwaities might be better off now.
-------------------- "and none of your usual boobery." M. Burns
Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:It is remarkable how Iraq's huge oil reserves - second largest in the world - prove two key points.
First, just how desperately Saddam clings to his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. His refusal to scrap them 12 years ago, as he pledged, cost Iraq more than $100 billion in lost oil revenue, perhaps as much as $200 billion. That's a lot to forgo for a WMD arsenal. But it's WMD that Saddam values most. No price his people pay is too high for his personal ambitions.
Second, Iraq's having gobs of oil shows how principled America and England are. For unlike the French and Russians, our leaders - both Republican and Democratic, Labour and Conservative - have willingly sacrificed acquiring cheaper oil to force Saddam's scrapping his WMD arsenal.We had hope that this would be done through UN sanctions and inspection teams. It was a nice try, but that effort obviously hasn't worked. So force must now be used.
quote:One last point on "blood for oil." Iraq's having substantial reserves - and the whole Middle East holding much of the world's oil supply - is a legitimate factor in our concerns in the region. Even the recent Noble Peace Prize winner, President Jimmy Carter, understood the importance of oil to the development world when president. In 1979, after the Soviets brutally invaded Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asserted the Carter Doctrine, which offered U.S. protection of Gulf states precisely because of their abundant oil.
quote:To turn the protestors on their head: President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair don't act on the basis of "blood for oil." It's Saddam who's been on a clear path of "oil for blood." That now must end.
-------------------- "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
And I almost forgot how principled Mr. Bush is.
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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You could have at least given us a decent anti-Bush diatribe.
-------------------- "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
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Originally posted by Grokca: [/QUOTE]You mean like the great reforms that took place in Kuwait after they were liberated. The normal citizens of Iraq were better off then the normal citizens of kuwait before Iraq invaded. Had we left Iraq alone, the Kuwaities might be better off now. [/QB][/QUOTE]
If by "better off" You mean DED! that's right D-E-D!
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"Jimmy Carter understood the importance of oil to the development world"
Yeah, when 1) developing countries are permitted to exploit their own resources WITHOUT foreign interference, as is their SOVEREIGN RIGHT, and 2) the revenues generated from said oil go to the general population instead of being divided among the elite.
Carter understood THAT, too. But then, he was no hawk.
[ February 27, 2003, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Registered: Nov 1999
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quote:Originally posted by First of Two: How about a difference between Hitler and Saddam?
A few bright boys got together and stopped Saddam when he tried to take over his Sudetenland (Kuwait.)
Oh yes, Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, and BANG! you lot were there barely 2 years later.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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