Sarah,
People have made up their minds, and then closed them.
I'm sure you, as have I, wanted a peaceful end to this,
but that option no longer seems posible. Just yesturday
four men were arrested in Ohio for threats agaist Wright
Patterson Air Force Base. All their visas had expired. At the
least they will be deported. I don't live far from that base.
On Tuesday my brother and sister-in-law had their first baby,
a girl. They live in Fla. and I truly think sometimes I may never
see her, or she may not ever know the freedoms I have known.
I hate war. I hate the thought of killing, or being killed. But through
all I have read, whatched, heard, and seen it is a just war. Waiting
is only going to give Saddam more time to prepare, and him more
time to kill his own people. What seems funny to me is we are
condemed for turning a blind eye to child abuse, spousal abuse,
and rape in this country, and them condemed for trying to free
another country. Some states have what is called a simaritan law,
where as if you see a crime and don't report it (ie child abuse) you
can be held accountable. I happen to like that law. When the man
was shooting people at gas stations in D.C no one here would blame
any one for killing him on the spot. But kill thousands and we should
try reasoning with him? That makes no since to me. Saying I support
the war effort does not mean that I think the Jonh Wayne way is the
answer, go in with gus blazzing, and shoot every thing in sight. Loss
of life will happen, but to what degree? It sounds like this has been
thought out. Do you know where the Iraqi man is today? That was
a moving story, thanks for posting it.
Kasey
P.S Note to Kakki, sorry Kakki but Sarah has moved into
your spot, but I still love you ;)
I take your point about being an armchair soldier, and agree with it.
But the Pentagon says this will be a new type of warfare - a war
against infrastructure, not people. I can't know whether that's
true, but their descriptions make sense, and it does seem possible.
Don't you remember the search in the 60s/70s for the bomb that would
kill people, but leave buildings standing? Well, these bombs do the
opposite.
The American plan is to take out the first two tiers of Iraqi
leadership in all government departments, but otherwise to leave
things as they are. The aim is to take over the country with
virtually no loss of innocent life, rule it for one year, then hold
elections.
Did Osama bin Laden intend minimal loss of life when he attacked New
York? Did Saddam intend it when he gassed the Kurds?
Our intentions, unlike theirs, are decent. I believe that -- no
matter how ridiculous it may sound to a small number of you.
Those of you who say 'it's about oil' should spell out what you mean.
It has turned into a chant that no-one understands.
What is it about the Iraqi people that makes them unworthy of being
liberated? How many of you who are anti-war have spent time with one
single Iraqi in your entire lives?
Please - meet them, speak to them, learn. They are desperate.
I don't know what Churchill's motive was when he pushed Britain into
a war against Germany. I do know that he ended up liberating the
people in the concentration camps. So who cares what he intended?
As Joni said, who cares what the song meant for me - what does it
mean for you? Authorial intention is dead. If George Bush wants oil,
let him have it. Who cares? All that matters, IMO, is that the
people of Iraq are liberated.
Those of you who oppose this war should suggest a viable alternative.
You can't criticize war then turn your heads away, avert your gaze
from the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people. Hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi children have been killed because of sanctions.
But we can't NOT have sanctions, because Saddam is using the money to
rebuild a horrific military infrastructure. So what do we do, if not
overthrow him militarily?
I was working for a large news organization during the first Gulf War
and we had this man come to us - an Iraqi engineer - and he requested
an interview. He had just escaped from Baghdad, and he wanted to tell
his story, so he came to the office and we talked. His story was
"please do something about Saddam, you don't know how evil he is",
and I said " but what do you mean, we're fighting a war with him,
we're doing something!". He fell on his knees, in my office, crying,
saying no, you're going to leave him in power. And he told me some
stories about what it's like to live in Iraq, how there is no freedom
- NONE - of thought, speech or assembly. And I don't think any of us
can even imagine it. When someone is sitting in front of you telling
those stories, all you can do is bow your head in shame. This
particular man had his wife and 14-year-old daughter raped in front
of him because he was an engineer with special knowledge, and the
rapes were a warning - don't go abroad with your secrets, or even
worse than this will happen. Thanks to Iraqi opposition groups in
London - the very ones the CIA now doubts! - he and his family
escaped, and so he approached Western news agencies with his story,
thinking (naively!!) if he talked about the horrors, we'd somehow get
the news out - "get rid of Saddam". Recite your anti-war slogans in
front of this man, not me.
The Iraqi people are known within the Arab world as being like New
Yorkers. They're stubborn, opinionated, educated, proud, with a
thorough knowledge of their own history. They deserve to be
liberated, and I honestly can't see why anyone would deny them this
for the sake of anti-war rhetoric. It's like forming an opinion
about Joni Mitchell without ever having listened to her. Just as
it's possible to be an armchair warrior, it's also possible to be an
ignorant peace campaigner.
Sarah
At 6:43 AM -0800 02/12/2003, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>I believe unequivocally that this proposed war is
>absolutely, completely senseless. I stand by a previous
>statement. It's about the oil. Period. If we were so
>morally high and mighty, we'd be in many other
>countries in droves. I'll use my favorite example -
>Sudan. We don't give a rat's ass about the atrocities
>there because they don't have a single thing we want.Get more from the Web.
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