Points -- FawnDoo's Cavalcade of Whimsy

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Date Posted: 10:07:01 03/25/03 Tue
Author: FawnDoo
Subject: Points
In reply to: X 's message, "To all those still against the war (I did some research for you)" on 00:13:34 03/25/03 Tue

You know something? For the record, I support the war in Iraq. I don't believe it is for oil or anything like that. I may be being naive, but I like to think that my government can act in a slightly more principled way than that. I support the war in terms of its humanitarian mission. The regime of Saddam Hussein has visited over a decade of pain, torture and fear upon the people of a country that is one of the cradles of civilization. Women have been brutalised. Rapes - not limited to women, I hasten to add - are commonplace. Prisons with over twenty thousand inmates are not uncommon, and the reasons for people being in there seem to start from speaking out against the regime and move on up from there. An Iraqi woman on British TV told of her time as a schoolteacher where she witnessed children being executed following a demonstration held in the school's yard.

In a wider sense the middle east has had a brutal dictatorship in its midst - one with horrible strength and a long arm - and the UN has had its authority flouted at every turn by a man who is an acknowledged master in political brinksmanship. Men and women of many nations died in a brutal gulf war that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait and limited his arsenal, but nothing else. In 1991 we had a chance to end this before it even started. The coalition forces were in Iraq, and by the standards of war it wouldn't have been unreasonable to see Saddam Hussein stand trial for war crimes for his actions. Illegal invasion? Torture? Violation of Geneva Conventions regarding treatment of prisoners? Mass extermination or forced relocation of native populations? I think Milosevic is up at the Hague for less, to be honest. However Coalition forces withdrew - leaving Saddam in power. Sanctions never hurt him or his close circle - that was passed along to the common Iraqi men and women. Last figures I saw put about 60% of the Iraqi population as being dependent on UN food aid.

From then until now, how many have died? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? How many children? How many young people? And who has their blood on their hands?

Us.

Yes, us.

And I say again, us.

Why?

Because I firmly believe that we had a chance after the Gulf War to remove Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. I believe that when we did not, he was greatly emboldened. Though under the weight of crippling sanctions, he passed these along to his countrymen and went on as before because he was not short of food or medicine or heat, light, a roof over his head, clean water or any of the basic amenities. He went on living his life and we left the Iraqi people to their fate. 12 years of the regime you describe, X.

So a quick roll call of who has blood on their hands, eh? Three Presidents: George Bush (snr), Bill Clinton and good ole Dubya himself. Two Prime Ministers: John Major and Tony Blair. Their governments. The populations of their countries who elected them several times over those 12 years. Woops, at that point there go my hands because twice I have voted in elections and both times I have voted Labour. I could go on but I think I will end at me for now. That's a lot of hands, but then again there is a lot of blood to go around.

And so what do we have to do? The UN route may or may not have worked - we will never know. However the UN was concerned with Saddam possibly having weapons of mass destruction and nothing else - at no point in the recent security council deliberations was any mention made of action based on the treatment of the Iraqi population. In any event diplomatic efforts were stymied and a second resolution was never brought before the council. I wish we had got one - 1442 (or whatever its number would have been) may have provided a path by which Iraq could have been freed of a brutal dictator without committing troops to fight in a war. However, we won't know now.

So the remaining choices? Do nothing or fight a war. So we fight. We send young men and women off to fight in a far-off land and die on our behalf. There are those who call it a liberation - and who knows, they might be right. Action is being taken against a state that has systematically brutalised its civilian population for over a decade. Oil? Oil? Oil can go to hell as far as I am concerned - people are more important than some black combustible goop from underground. Again I may be being hopelessly naive but when I heard the report of that Iraqi woman on British TV who saw children she taught executed my opinion decidedly swung behind the Prime Minister and the war. Perhaps it is because I have two younger brothers aged 7. Since they came along I am more sensitive to issues that involve children, I admit. Maybe I am being biased and I am pretty sure that I sound a little rabid in this post. I apologise if I do - that was not my intention and I assure anyone reading this I remain rational.

Issues like the war in Iraq cannot be simplified and regarded as "good versus evil". The world does not operate in black and white. Sometimes a stand has to be taken and we seem to be taking one now, but nothing is absolute. War is a hellish option, unleashing all the horrors of conflict on young men and women who have done nothing to deserve that. However, standing back and doing nothing puts us back into the realm of implicit acceptance of Saddam Hussein's regime and all that it stands for, and we've had 12 years of that. So we fight.

The war is not, I believe, about oil - the Iraqi people will benefit from the oil as the UN has set up a trust fund for that very reason (last I heard) to funnel all revenue from Iraqi oil right back into Iraq. The war is (or should be) about removing from power a man who has organised a regime that has legitimised terror, torture, rape and killing as instruments of government. Countries have went to war for those reasons before and history seems to view them not too badly.

I do not need you to research for me, X. I do not believe anyone here does. Thank you for the articles - many of them I had not read before and the quotes are illuminating, even if some of them are so subjective as to be of questionable merit in this argument. Other people here will have their own opinions about the war - for or against. What swings it for me though, is that after this war there is a possibility that even one Iraqi can come online and publicly agree with me while sitting at home in Iraq safe from the possibility of imprisonment or torture - because they can't right now.

Good Lord, and I usually aim for a little more balanced approach......again, I apologise if anyone thinks I am a little overzealous on this one.

Cheers

FD

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Replies:

some issues -- Goktimus Prime, 10:42:50 03/25/03 Tue
- Wait a minute.. -- Motocron, 22:09:21 03/25/03 Tue
  - government propaganda -- Goktimus Prime, 08:47:49 03/26/03 Wed
    - Interesting -- WarCore, 20:54:16 04/01/03 Tue