Posted on 02/14/2003 3:26:55 AM PST by mhking
I accept your gentle correction in the spirit in which it was offered.
Perhaps I should consider recent forays into FR as warning signs and consult a psychiatrist.
As ever, I enjoy reading your posts, even when I disagree with them. Here, I think you miscalculate the nature of the threat from Iraq, and that explains our different attitudes toward the conflict. To be sure, Saddam Hussein is no Josef Stalin, and his miserable little desert bunker-state can't compare to the old world-bestriding Evil Empire. However, he does pose a threat. That threat is both tactical and strategic, and it centers around WMD.
Assume for a moment that Hussein has WMD, anthrax for instance. We are instantly checked--our power, our freedom of movement, our ability to take decisive action, our capacity to guarantee the stability of the global system--are all brought low. A few vials of the stuff released into subways in 5 American cities could yield literally millions of casualties. Hussein has a history of miscalculating. He has a Nebuchadnezzar complex a mile wide. He sits atop a wobbly regime and must fend off the ambitions of dozens of rival tribal groups. His theater of action is the largest oil producing region in the world and the home of 300MM restive Arab Muslims. This situation is unacceptable because it is neither stable nor manageable, not in the way the conflict with the old USSR was. And bear in mind that even in that long, steady staring match, we nearly went nuclear over Cuba.
Now, if Hussein already has WMD, as The Great Satan rather convincingly argues, then this discussion (along with the one at the UN today) is moot. We are checked. The war you fear is not imminent, and we are merely witnessing the greatest Kabuke theater in the history of diplomacy. If, however, he does not have WMD in sufficient quantities to do us grave harm, then he must be stopped before he develops them.
But the threat is greater than even Hussein and Iraq. There are literally dozens of other petty dictators around the world who are watching this drama to determine their own next steps. If the lesson learned is that WMD guarantees one's survival and effectively checks American power, then we are in for a global arms race that will end in multiple holocausts.
Frankly, I'm beginning to think the situation will remain unstable until China becomes an effective counterbalance. M.A.D. works well in a bi-polar world. Not so much in the kind of uni-polar world we have now. In the cold war, the Husseins of the world were brought to heel because they needed the blessings of their patron superpower to do anything. Strange as it is to say (and think), I'm beginning to look back on that time with some nostalgia.
I see the anti-Catholics are still spreading the same LIE! BTW what kind of help did your denomination do to help Catholics as well as the Jewish people escape the Nazis gas chambers?
Also, I agree with your assessment of the Iraq situation. It's a shame that the previous administration thoguht they could buy off the North Koreans, ("peace in our time"?) and exacerbated the situation there.
This President is on no one's timetable but his own. He has made that so clear in so many situations, but no one listens. The media and the talking heads are the only ones setting deadlines, etc. Why? Because it sells newspapers and brings in advertising dollars. Why be swayed by them.
It is foolish to even put a deadline on this. This President is not going to act rashly... or as he put it... I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missle at a $10.00 tent and hit a camel in the butt.
Listening to the administation, listening to Tony Blair, watching the preparations going on in the Gulf-War tells me this President is serious. Saddam will be disarmed.
This isn't a reality t.v. show or a weekly drama that is all tied up neatly in an hour. This is real... and things have to be right before you "unleash the mightest military in the world."
I'd rather it be done correctly, so we win, than done fast because we are acting like a bunch of 5 years anxiously waiting for Christmas.
While I strongly support and admire the president, this is not entirely true. President Bush is now tied to the UN; whether or not he admits it. (Remember Great Britain?)
"I'd rather it be done correctly, so we win, than done fast because we are acting like a bunch of 5 years anxiously waiting for Christmas."
This statement is condescending and a misrepresentation. There's nothing "fast" about this war. The administration has been talking about and planning for this for twelve months. The president has done an excellent job preparing us for war and whipping up support.
Here's my question to you: how long can the administration say "weeks not months" and how many orchestrated--and very public--rebukes like the one last Friday can it absorb without looking foolish?
But we are acting like a bunch of five year olds waiting anxiously for Christmas. We want the war to start! Now! Because, heaven forbid, we look weak, or be publicly rebuked by France.
If you really believe that is what happened on Friday, then you are certainly entitled to that opinion.
Surprise! Surprise! The UN is anti-American. The Syrians said it was Israel's fault. Surprise! Surprise! The UN is anti-semitic.
The President said he was not tied to the UN's final decision. I believe that. He went to the UN at the urging of Powell and the urging of Tony Blair. I would like to suggest that you read Tony Blair's editorial in today's Wall Street Journal.
When I read it it didn't sound like Tony Blair's backing down (even in the face of that humliating "non" from France)
I don't think the President is either.
If you disagree with me. Fine! We can just agree to disagree.
Maybe you should exhale. I never said Tony Blair is backing down. Tony Blair has always said he needs a second UN resolution authorizing military action. Hence, our need to go back to the UN.
"I was not being condescending to you, when I am, you will know it."
Here you're just trying to be funny, right?
Maybe you should... never mind.
We're through here.
Maybe you should... never mind."
You're taking all this too personally. Maybe you should take a break from all this. Just a thought ;*)
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