From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Feb 14 2003 - 09:33:07 MST
Avatar's post on the Melbourne anti-war demonstration and Hubert's comments
force me to raise a sticky question.
"When do we act?"
Everyone is careful to say that they do not support Saddam Hussein but
nobody seems to have a concrete plan for getting rid of him. And they
fail to mention the *real* loss of human life of allowing him to remain
in power (due to the sanctions against Iraq) and the potential for future
losses of human life should he remain in power (odds seem against Saddam
undergoing a miraculous transformation into a peacenik from his current
orientation of restoring the Arab/Islamic world to power with him as
its leader).
Mind you, I am not in favor of a war if containment can work. *BUT*
I've seen no reasonable discussion on whether the possible number of
lives saved by going to war and eliminating Saddam will exceed the
number of lives that might be lost in such a war.
The entire "peace" movement I see here in Seattle (and perhaps
in Melbourne or Germany) seems to be based on the concept of
"no war ever".
The most recent episode of "West Wing" that I've seen here in the
U.S. was quite interesting. ["West Wing" for those of you outside
of the U.S. is a prime time TV show about the intense environment
at the top levels of the executive branch within the "White House".]
The President, at his second inauguration chose to adopt a policy
that the U.S. would intervene in international confrontations using
only the basis of "moral correctness".
The basis for this position is a fictitious confrontation in Africa
presumably derived from the events of the Rwanda slaughter which
the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the U.N. were content to ignore.
Given the actions Saddam has taken against both foreign armies
(e.g. Iranian soldiers) as well as his own citizens, is this
man not a war criminal and guilty of crimes against humanity?
And if so -- *what* should the world be doing about bringing
him to justice?
IMO, sticking ones head in the sand and hoping the problem will
simply "go away" isn't an extropic approach. Go read the history
books on WWII to see how far that approach will get you.
Robert
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