One for you damn peace loving hippies.

[den]

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Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. I > /dev/nul both the left and right propaganda as applicable.

Hmmm, maybe they should add a icon of Number of Starving Shia Muslims shot by Saddams goon squads while fleeing Basra for example...

Mako

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

I've heard today that there are Al-Quaeda (Okay, I admit, I
can't even spell in English) operatives in Basra.

On Al-Quaeda and Saddam calling each other infidels:
One thing I keep thinking of, that I don't hear anyone mention
is that during the Gulf War in 1991, many or most of Iraq's
fighters fled to Iran. Now, Iraq and Iran are *really* not the
best of friends! Al-Quaeda and Iran don't like the
secularness of the Baath Party. But, as far as I can see, they
close ranks when they're threatened by the West.

If Iran is willing to shelter Iraqi military, I don't think it's a big stretch for Iraq to shelter Al-Quaeda. Both of
them hate the West, and isn't "The Enemy of my Enemy
is My Friend" an old Arabic saying after all?

Okay, all that said, I really intensely wish that this could
have been solved without a war. But, in 1991 we watched for
6-7 months as Saddam steadfastly refused to consider backing
down. For 12 years he's utterly ignored the UN resolutions.
I honestly do not believe that the inspections were working,
or even could be made to work with the UN so divided on the
issue. There was no credible threat to make Saddam back down,
and we've seen him refuse to back down even in the face of
such threats.

Years of history indicates to me that negotiation with Saddam
is a waste of time. This, coming from *me* is a very sad
admission. Personally, I *always* try to negotiate my way
out of trouble, but I do recognize that it doesn't always work.
:(

So, from a security point of view, Saddam must go. It would
only be a matter of time before he either developed an atomic
bomb, or gave nuclear, biological or chemical weapons to
Al-Quaeda.

From a humanitarian point of view... war kills civilians.
Civillians have been getting killed and tortured in
unspeakable ways by Saddam for 20+ years. If this is surgery,
I hope that it removes Saddam the tumor without having to kill
much of the surrounding tissue.

I think a lot of the Iraqis who are currently supporting Saddam
are probably Baath Sunni Moslems (I think) who are afraid of
Kurdish and Shiite uprisings and reprisals (not to mention the
fear of Saddam's reprisals!) The death squads shooting anyone
who dosn't want to fight the Coallition. :(

Propaganda:
UGH. I wish I knew where I could get reliable news from! :(
I used to get my news from BBC WorldNews over dinner.
I always grumbled because I felt that it was biased against
the US. But lately, their own BBC War Correspondants have
charged that the BBC is distorting the news. :(
If I wanted Iraqi propaganda, I'd look up Al-Jazzera (Again,
I can't spell).

FoxNews says they're objective, and I think they're probably
better than the BBC at this point, but I don't know! :(

BBC gets people on in interviews and tries to stir them up
against the Americans. Foxnews gets war protesters on and
tries to get them to say they support the war.

The only thing I can do is to listen to both and try to
piece together the truth. It's a very unsatisfactory
arrangment. :(

In any case, I just hope that it ends soon, Saddam will go,
the civilians will be saved, and that we all can go back to
living our lives peacefully. Three big tall wishes, but
as long as you're wishing, you may as well wish big.

Scott