The US, The UN and Iraq

Just couldn't manage it, couldja!!

try is on for provocation resulting in US armed invasion: Grenada

"Reagan was most concerned by the presence of Cuban construction workers and military personnel building a 10,000-foot airstrip on Grenada. Though Bishop had claimed the purpose of the airstrip was to allow commercial jets to land, Reagan believed its purpose was to allow military transport planes loaded with arms from Cuba to be transferred to Central American insurgents."

Tres

No, there is no need to apologize for this grace. On the other hand, there is equally no need for someone in deep poverty to feel shame or inferiority. We both nod to luck, and one nod is more happy than the other.

But this system has failings of some magnitude as well, and the matter of exporting it is not without its own perils. It is no simple matter to think through how the world will survive if the populations of China, India, Pakistan, Mexico etc all come to feel they should be consuming at the levels we do.

The idea of citizen government, established by citizen votes (a greek idea) is a fine idea to export.

Tartarin

Don't look now but you just lost your pen knife!

Tartar sauce

Hello out there ---did you get it-----"pen" "knife"??????

Tartar sauce

That's OK---I don't hold a grudge----but I would suggest you file for a refund on that "education" you brag about in your Bio

i guess the price isn't right;
"
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - With Washington warning that time is running short, the United States and Turkey failed again Wednesday to agree on a plan to let U.S. forces deploy for a northern front against Iraq. The standoff came as U.S. ships loaded with tanks and other armor awaited orders in the Mediterranean.

Secretary of State Colin Powell called Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul after a Turkish Cabinet meeting ended with no decision, and a top Turkish leader said there were no plans for parliament to take up the issue until at least next week.

Turkey just replaced Iran on the hit list..................

Walter's smiley/peace face is about 40-50 responses ago.

dys, I think Turkey is asking for about 30 billion for use of their country for US army. c.i.

Everyone MUST see this link...

http://www.nationalphilistine.com/baghdad/index2.html

Thanks for the link, blatham.

Perhaps, you'll like to read afterwards, why an Iranian thinks, an American attack on his country would bring disaster, not liberation:

Iraqis will not be pawns in Bush and Blair's war game

Here's a statement from the British Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops, which comes the day after British citizens were advised by the Foreign Office to leave Iraq immediately because of the stand-off with Saddam:

Archbishops doubt morality of Iraq war

Walter, I'm not sure why you aren't sleeping at this time in the morning, but thank you for the two links. The supporters of Bush and Blair will not understand a word of these two articles. It doesn't matter to them what the people of this world or the Iraqi people think. They are hell-bent on shedding some blood to prove they have the strongest military in the world. I have always maintained that the economic sanctions against Iraq only hurt the innocent people of Iraq, and not Saddam and his henchmen. For some reason, these so-called christians are unable to see the human suffering they have caused and continue to cause. I'm at a complete loss as to why everything done in the name of world security always seems to harm the innocents more than the leadership for both the aggressor nations and the victims. c.i.

c.i.

It's now 8.51 am here :wink:

Oh! It's 12 midnight here in California. c .i.

Oh! It's 12 midnight here in California. c .i.

Tartarin, I used "was" about Kennan without thinking. I did not know for sure that he is alive still. And I found the rotating peace sign: it was in the body of a Walter text, not in the avatar space. I tried to copy it as a jpg file, but never managed it.

This is just arguendo, perception. What if, due to some divine interventional device (bit of irony here from an agnostic,) we were unable to strike at Iraq? Let's say we had been warned that we would all turn into pillars of salt as we tried to undo our trigger locks. If first-strike violence was not an option, what would we do? "For good men to do nothing" does not mean that they have only the option of war. It means that their voices must be heard, with increasing strength.

I try to read a good sampling of opinion pieces, national and international, that oppose my views in the current situation.

There is a Safire piece in today's NYTimes:

lhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/opinion/20SAFI.html

Reading this article had me looking deep inside myself until, towards the end, he spoke to me directly:

"...This is the dirty dozen of doubt, the non-rallying cry of the half-hearted. The yes-butters never forthrightly oppose as principled pacifists do. Rather than challenge the ends, they demean the means...."

There I am, right at the end of the second sentence, saved from being a yes-butter.

Then I read this from the Letters page:

[quote]To the Editor:

Re "Antiwar Protests Fail to Sway Bush on Plans for Iraq" (front page, Feb. 19):

I don't believe that any American wants war, but certain facts need to be considered when contemplating action that will affect the world for a very long time.

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait unprovoked to improve Iraq's economy and regional power after the Iran-Iraq war.

He set the Kuwaiti oil fields on fire when defeat became apparent.

He fired Scud missiles at the Israelis.

This man is a threat to the entire region, making him a threat to the entire world.

France and Russia have too much at stake economically with Iraq and will sabotage every effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

If this administration is swayed by antiwar protests and United Nations indifference, the world will suffer.

Imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein has nuclear capabilities. I would rather not.
JOSEPH W. PELLEGRINO Oakdale, N.Y. Feb. 19, 2003[/quote]

*****
And yet, I continue to stand firm in the face of a tornado of belief that military power is a legitimate means to an end.

blatham, good link. Thanks.

Mr. Safire is a fine writer, but as the author of the famous "nabobs of negativism" phrase to describe journalists speaking against the Nixon administration, it's not entirely clear whether he believes newspapers ought have a role more presumptuous than stenographer for those in power. That is, when they are Republican.

from the New York Observer...


http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage6.asp