Iraq complains to U.N. about legality of war

Reuters | 3/20/03 | Evelyn Leopold

[LizardQueen]

Do you remember that show "Welcome back Kotter?" If so, what was the name of the character who always got a note from his mother?

Lessee, there was Washington, Epstein, Barbarino, and Horshack. I don't remember which one got the note - I think it was Epstein.

LQ, font of useless trivia

[geedee]

Epstein!!! You're right. Thanks.

[dodger]

'Powel [sic] talked GHW Bush out of ousting Hussy' in 1991??

Hmmmm, your's is an interesting if quite incorrect view. The agenda then was to liberate Kuwait via a coalition whose terms specifically excluded direct action in Baghdad. Not that it would not have been opportune to have offed Hussy, but really your's is revisionist history.

[plusone]

Possibly revisionist, yes. But the fact remains that Hussein remained a thorn in the side of the US for the next ten years. Why was he left there? How can you claim to win a war but then leave the leader of the country you're fighting against in power? My point is that this second war would have been unnecessary if they had finished the job in 91. Of course, overthrowing the regime might well have opened another, much more unsavory can of worms. But the can is being opened now. I don't think the US military will have much problem overthrowing Hussein, but what comes next might be much more difficult. Bush has the silly idea that sans Hussein, democracy will magically fluorish in Iraq. I doubt it. How many middle eastern nations have ever known democracy? This is a region of spiteful tribes, each warring incessantly against the other. Turkey and Egypt are the only examples that come to mind as democratic, but these are only facades...both are held together with strong militaries. The natural tendency for this region is bi-polar. Either broken into tribal factions, or immersed as part of a much larger empire, held together with sword and steel by some distant city. Will Washington become the new 'distant city'? The US military might be in for a very long haul...

[dodger]

The US military might be in for a very long haul...

Meanwhile, one infers you would have preferred to uncan worms then as now. Fine.

So, not only do you completely elide that the 1991 agenda was explicitly the liberation of Kuwait not regime change in Baghdad, but you put erect a straw-man in the garden with your quite dubious assertion the President entertains a naifish belief democracy will magically spring up in the deserts of Iraq.

The US will be in for a very long haul whatwith the West having settled into a torporous pusillanimity even in the face of Muslim and Eastern paranoid schemes. Your thinking is circular.