Re: Fw: Story

[Cameron MacLean]

Wondered how long it would take before somebody responded to my poke in the ribs... ;-)   With all due respect to you yanks down south,  I apologize, what I should have said is that the Bush regime is going to provoke a war in Iraq.   I realize that many of you don't support his agenda. Unfortunately, many of you do.   Thanks for the well written argument Don, but I don't buy it.  Add a flashy headline, and it could have come directly from CNN.   I believe that there are significantly more reasons why we are free from aggression, than just simply our proximity to the US.  Specifically, (a) geography, in that there aren't very many countries around us, let alone aggressors, (b), age - we are a young country with little to no history of either conflict or aggressive, and mostly (c), we are a peaceful people, with a peaceful government.   Our external policies are respectful as opposed to imposing.   Yeah, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and yep, he unfortunately killed many of his own people.  Not nearly the number of human rights violations that China has incurred (ask the Taiwanese, or the Nepalese), but we don't see Bush trying to oust Zemin.  China has repeatedly stated it will nuke Taiwan if they try to declare independence  (Taiwan is the 6th largest economy in the world).   And by the way, the world already told Hussein LAST time that he can't invade neighboring countries or massacre his own people.  The gulf war drove him back and the UN-imposed sanctions punished Iraq.   He has done nothing at this time, and the UN says so (so far).    Bush indicated at election time that his policy with respect to Iraq was regime change.  That was before Sept 11.  Sept 11 and Al-Qaeda simply distracted him.  Now we see him and his cronies conjuring up any piece of pseudo-evidence to back their policy of regime change.  And Tony Blair is so close behind Bush, that if Bush stopped suddenly, we would wonder what happened to Blair's head.   Let me ask you this:  What gives anybody the right, let alone some oil-executive/cowboy/president to decide who should run somebody else's country?   If Hussein has got weapons of mass destruction, where are they?  If he's got links to Al-Qaeda, who are they?  How come the incredible technology of the entire American military hasn't been able to find a thing (save a couple of empty howitzer shells).   Bush wants Iraq's oil.  Every single person in the US executive office (Bush, Rice, Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld) have held executive-level or board member positions on major oil companies in the US.   Bush is a former oil executive for Arbusto. Dick Cheney was the CEO for Halliburton Incorporated, the world's largest oil field services company. Condoleeza Rice sat on Chevron Oil's board of directors, and in fact she was so popular there that she even has a 130,000-ton oil tanker named after her.  It goes on an on.  That's what this war is about.  With the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world sitting underneath Iraq, it's a no-brainer.  I don't mean to imply that Bush is going to steal Iraqi oil, it's just that without Hussein sticking in their ribs, it's that much easier to get at.   Let's be realistic here.  Do I think Hussein is a bad guy?  Absolutely.  Do I think he's got some nasty weapons, and he's hiding them?  Probably, given his past behaviour.  Do I think that we'd all be better off without him?  Most likely.  Do I think Bush has the right to take him out?  No way.  That's for the people of Iraq to decide.   The entire world is stressed out right now, and we can all point our collective finger of responsibility at that dickhead Dubya.  He has summarily pissed off pretty much every other country in the world right now, save maybe Britain, who seems to think they still are some sort of superpower.  Wait until he decides he wants our water, or (gad) our softwood lumber.  Think he'll be nice and respectful to us?   This guy and his policies, in two years has set American foreign relations back 20 years.  Did we see anything like this during the Clinton/Gore era?    I tell you what.  Give me a sex scandal in the whitehouse over global war anyday.   ..Cameron     ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Mac Lean To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 4:08 PM Subject: RE: Fw: Story     -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Cameron MacLean Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 10:45 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Fw: Story   True that the American's have come to the defense of the French (and usually everybody else in the world, for which we are all thankful), but that idiot marine wasn't smart enough to realize the French officer's true point, which is that the Americans are going to provoke a war in Iraq.   Not quite sure why that's a good thing.    Well Cameron, my boy.  Consider this.             We are fortunate to have grown up and live in a Country where our neighbors are AMERICAN. They are not only neighbors; a lot of them are family members.  Cousins, nephews, nieces and yes, brothers and sisters. There is very little difference in our way of life and theirs. Having spent considerable time living in France, Belgium and Germany, I know we have a better life here. And why would I think that is so???  It�s most likely due to the fact we are living under the umbrella of protection provided by the �Americans�.  And if you don�t believe this. Just look at our military. Our Canadian way of life provides many freedoms and benefits. One of these is the knowledge that we are relatively free from outside aggression because of our closeness to the Americans.  Along with this is the comfort we enjoy because of the effort of other nations in the world who wish to live in peace. They have voluntarily signed agreements to form and support a group of more than half the nations of the world, united in the same objective of having the world live in peace. Not all nations agree with this.  They wish to pursue their own agenda, for whatever reason.  Without some form of control in the world, these rogue nations would pose a threat to all of us by imposing their dictatorial way of life on us.  The losses to us are almost too much to comprehend. When Saddam Hussein demonstrated his evilness to the world by invading his neighbor Kuwait, and subsequently murdering thousands of his own people by using chemical and biological agents, he attracted the attention of the United Nations.  This organization demanded that he disarm and destroy his weapons of mass destruction.  He has not done it.  He is defying the world.  What choice is left?????         ----- Original Message ----- From: Lesley and Dave To: Chris Heslin ; Faith Heslin ; Jamie Heslin ; Larry/Diane McClure ; David Webster ; MacLean List Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 8:37 PM Subject: Fwd: Fw: Story    Note: forwarded message attached.   Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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