Re: Giant anti-war demonstration in Melbourne

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Feb 15 2003 - 21:07:55 MST

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    Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
    > 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.

    Frankly, Saddam as such is none of our business.

       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).
    >

    How the heck do we know what his orientation is at this time?
    For sure it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to
    gain any great power at this time or any time soon.

    > 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.
    >

    We would save a LOT more lifes if we dropped the sanctions
    tomorrow, continued inspections and worked with groups out to
    democratize the country from within. A lot of lives are being
    lost now, many of them from the sanctions. It is guaranteed
    that many times that number of lives will be lost in the war and
    its predictable repurcussions.

    > 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".
    >

    Then you haven't been paying attention. Many people marching
    are against this particular war, not necessarily against all
    wars no matter what. Many are there because this war has not
    been sufficiently justified for the costs in lives, finances,
    increased likelihood of terrorism and destabilizing the region
    and the world further. The onus of proof is on those who
    propose this action. So far they have been singularly unconvincing.

    - samantha

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