JDG wrote: > --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Ritu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Similarly, I find the notion of bombing a people into democracy and > > gratitude stupid. And I really honestly do not believe that Bush's > > failure of imagination and my recognition of the same makes me > > responsible for Saddam's crimes, or the hypothetical continuation > > thereof. > > > And I find the notion of winning gratitude while standing > idly by as a megalamoniac dictator terrorizes the population, > starts futile wars with his neighbors, and leaves his country > impoversihed while completely enriching himself to be even stupider. > > See, I can mock your position as easily as you can mock mine....
*g* Would have worked better had that really been my position. :) But I don't think I've ever said anything that can be construed to mean that one can stand by idly while others are being tortured/killed and earn gratitude that way. So hold on to these lines and trot them out when I do make such a silly proposition. :) > > Now if there had been a serious attempt to find a different, less > > destructive way to get rid of Saddam before the invasion and the > tarring > > of every opposer as a supporter of Saddam you might have > had a point. > > But there wasn't, and therefore you don't. > > > You wouldn't be referring to the generally-supposed policy of > France, Russia, and China, among others, to work towards the > lifting of > sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, would you? No I wasn't refering to that at all. If you re-read my lines above, you'd see that I was talking of alternate ways to remove Saddam, and not on the totally different subject of removal of sanctions. > On the other hand, the policy of sanctions, No-Fly-Zones, > diplomatic isolation, etc. was given something on the order > of 10+ years to work. And, to refresh my memory, which one of these policies was aimed at *removing* Saddam instead of containing him, and neutralising the threat posed by him? > If a American Republicans/conservatives were proposing > sticking with a policy that had failed for 10+ years, I > wonder what your reaction would have been... *shrug* Depends on the issue, the costs and who'd be paying them, how strongly I feel about a subject, and a host of other factors. You'd have to propose a hypothetical situation to find out how I'd react. But one thing I can say for sure, I would react the same way whether the notion was proposed by a Democrat or a Republican. I respond to the idea, not to the proposer. :) Ritu _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
