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Date Posted: 22:41:44 03/14/03 Fri
Author: Goktimus Prime
Subject: Saddam Hussein
In reply to: WarCore 's message, "Commentary" on 20:04:34 03/13/03 Thu

But I won’t disparage your defense of terrorism or terrorist actions…it was a good one.

Oh, I wasn't trying to defend terrorism, merely attempting to understand it. It's like saying that stealing is wrong -- yet what about the old adage about a man stealing bread to feed his hungry family? Sure, the thief may have been motivated by good intentions, but the act of theft is still wrong. Terrorism is always wrong - but I'm merely saying that blindly blanketing all terrorists as malicious is also looking at issues too simplistically. As you pointed out yourself, many terrorists are warped youths. Young people who have low self esteem are easy to bend to your will, and when you're living in a country that's going through very hard times with very low prosperity in your life, chances are that you're not feeling very good about yourself. Look at the Nazi Youth movement. That's not to say that all the boys who joined that movement started off being evil racists, but it's no secret that Hitler recruited a lot of young boys and brainwashed them with his crap.

Make no mistake that I have no more love for terrorism than anyone else on this board... all I've been doing is merely attempting to analyse the phenomenon of terrorism, why it occurs and so forth. I mean, if we're serious about wanting to eliminate terrorism, then we need to understand it.

UN Resolutions state he has them…its just proof that he has destroyed them is what we’re looking for, which he hasn’t supplied and continues to deny…

Actually he has started dismantling some of his missiles, which I think is a positive sign.

And this is the point. He has no qualms about using them. Most sane governments wouldn’t do such a thing but he is willing.

Consider the following:
(1) Iraq has *never* attacked anyone outside its borders since the Persian Gulf War. Its military was devastated in that war. Hell, Saddam can't even control the Kurds in his own country, which shows how disempowered his military capacity is. I mean, Indonesia has a lot of civil unrest, but their military is strong enough to more or less maintain order in most places (although a few other places are just going to hell, like the Maluku islands, but I digress).
(2) Saddam has said that if Iraq is attacked, that he will use destructive weapons. Of course he would. If someone landed troops on US soil, wouldn't you expect the US military/govt to use destructive weapons on the enemy?

Yeah okay, I can understand that there are certain weapons that Iraq is not allowed to possess. If Saddam is possessing weapons of mass destruction, how would attacking Iraq solve this? If Saddam has them, he hasn't used them for nearly a decade and a half. If Iraq is attacked, what's his motivation for NOT using them on his foes?

Seriously.. what would a war accomplish? Would it take out Saddam's supply of weapons of mass destruction? Nobody even knows where they are, if he has them.

Let sleeping dogs lie is a good saying, but what if the sleeping dog is rabid? In other words, he hasn’t used them yet but it’s only a matter of time until he gets a nice and lovely nuke going and then what? We have Hitler with a nuke, the will to use it and Kuwait and Israel are open to the taking. But let’s appease him, he doesn’t bother us unless we bother him, right?

Where's the proof that he's got nuclear arms? Alright, for the sake of argument, let's presume that he has. How would attacking Iraq solve this?

And where is this "will to use it"? He hasn't even touched Kuwait or any other foreign nation for the last 12 years. If Saddam really wanted to use a nuke, I don't think obliterating Baghdad's going to stop him... if anything, it would probably encourage him.

As for the Saddam - Hitler comparison... again, he's not going out and invading other countries. Internal oppression? Iraq's a pretty bad place to live in if you want to vote or openly speak against the government. Yes, his dictatorship is a regime. But other than a lack of political activism, it's not THAT bad of a regime. They have reasonably well maintained infrastructure. Saddam provides his people with FREE health care! I'd like to see the US provide the American people with free health care. Even Australia's Medicare system is really free, since it's paid through our taxes (although it's a helluva lot better than the US's health system which seems to only work for the rich). Saddam Hussein may be an oppressive control monkey, but he's not stupid. He hasn't remained a dictator for this long without giving something back to the people. Saddam is obsessed with staying in power. Democratically speaking, it totally sucks. Even his oppression against the Kurds isn't working well. Hitler kept the Jews in check (by inventing things like Visas for your passports) and he was displacing and slaughtering them by the droves. Saddam is NOT doing this to the Kurds. Okay, he's not exactly treating them as proper citizens either, but he's not outrightly persecuting them on the same level as Hitler.

There are FAR worst dictators than Saddam. Look at Mogavi. Shit, what's the US doing about him? North Korea... Iraqi people get free health care whilst North Korean people don't even have food! And China is MUCH worse when it comes to violations against human rights than Iraq, but the US won't touch them because right now, China is the only country in the world that has the capacity to sustain a long-term drawn out war with the US with the outcome favourable to neither side. If the US attacks Iraq, they will annihilate Baghdad off the face of the Earth. Saddam will lose within a matter of weeks if not months, no doubt's there.

No matter what Saddam has, we KNOW that he does NOT have the might to take on the United States. Like I said, he can't even control the bloody Kurds within his own borders let alone sustain a drawn out campaign with the US. The US would win a war with Iraq, no worries. (PS: Saddam knows this)

I still cannot see any justification for a war on Iraq other than the fact that Bush is really pissed that he can't find Bin Laden.

Oh, as for the notion that Iraq is in cahoots with terrorists, where is the evidence for this? How much support would Al Qaeda be receiving from Iraq, if any. Remember, as far as Al Qaeda is concerned, the Iraqis are infidels. They are shi-ait (sp?) Muslims and as far as the Iraqi govt is concerned, the vice-president is a Christian! In fact, a significant proportion of the Iraqi people are Orthodox Christian and the rest are a different denomination of Islam that Al Qaeda consider to be heretics anyway. Iraqi Islam is more moderate, which does not condone terrorism. Extremist Islam is a different kettle of fish. But it's not beyond imagining that if Iraq was invaded, that Islamic terrorist networks might attack Western cities as "sympathy strikes" in reaction to what they see as an assault on an Islamic nation (albeit a heretic Islamic nation).

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