posted on October 11, 2001 03:30:47 PMWere we wrong to drive Saddam out of Kuwait?
What we did wrong there was not drivng Saddam out of Iraq also.
As this problem affects the world at large, the UN should do the occupying.
That could work if we get enough support (in the form of troop commitments from other governments) for that. If we supply the lions share of the occupying force, why should we give control to the UN?
posted on October 11, 2001 03:38:19 PMIt is this talk of genocide that really concerns me.
Well contrary to the belief of some the US has been a very generous victor in the history I'm familiar with. Japan was occupied, but not colonized, the US send billions to Europe under the Marshall Plan. Did you know that Admiral Halsey and General Eisenhower were both against the use of the atomic bomb on Japan? Halsey felt the Japanese would look like the victim some day, and Eisenhower didn't feel the US should be the first to use such a weapon, and these were our war leaders.
Has anyone ever seen the combat footage of Okinawa in WW2? Marines trying to coax civilians to come with them and they were throwing themselves off cliffs and the marines were horrified by that. These are the same marines that had just seen their own killed at the hands of the Japanese. America isn't a country of killers, at least not from the history I've been exposed to.
The US had the opportunity to conquer the world if it had wanted. At the end of WW2 we had that much power, but we also had a great deal of compassion.
posted on October 11, 2001 03:43:10 PMuaru: Yes. Oh, I don't doubt that there have been instances of atrocity by members of our military--every army can have bad apples. But overall, our history has been one of helping those we have defeated or who have been downtrodden.
posted on October 11, 2001 03:43:42 PMWhat we did wrong there was not drivng Saddam out of Iraq also.
I agree, but unfortunately we were having to hold together a very fragile coalition. The Saudis didn't want the US to invade Bagdad, and the Eyptians were in the same camp. Had the US done that the coalition would have fallen apart and we'd have been fighting in front and behind us.
Remember Iraq's attempt to get Israel involved by firing the SCUD missiles at Israel? Saddam isn't stupid, he knew that if Israel had joined the battle the Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, and any other Muslim nation would have switched sides.
posted on October 11, 2001 04:00:22 PM"I certainly don't see the US as the bad guy in this present conflict. I think we are doing the right thing in fighting back. It is this talk of genocide that really concerns me. I would hope that the character of our nation & its people hasn't deteriorated that level".
Well. Hooray!! Another peacenik. Find and deal with the perpetrator(s) of the crime, yes! Make a list of 'enemy' countries sixty long and growing, threaten countries with no evidence of any involvement in the WTC attack at all, no.
And in Japan, the biggest and single most important decision made was that to not try the Emperor for war crimes. Not tampering with the monarchy brought a receptiveness to all reconstructive programs put in place and brought the people to an interest in emulating certain aspects of our way of doing things. They were not simply imposed upon them.
Yes. the "Prime Directive" is an approach that we've never tried. It would be an allowance of true freedom so that countries (or planets) could develop their own variation of a succesful theme, and would not be the imposition upon them of an unpopular regime which serves them little if anything but tyranny.
We should not have interfered about Kuwait. Look at a world map and it should become clear that that little corner was cut from Iraq because it is a most obvious port from which oil can be disembarked from the region. A similar act would chop the entire southern portion of Florida away so that it would be available to the choppers. Create a puppet regime there and use it for whatever is needed. Oh my but Iraq did horrible things and we had to stop them. Yet we sit by while other peoples are subjected to the most horrible atrocities and take no action because they have nothing we want.
posted on October 11, 2001 04:10:27 PMkrs: the Japanese were given no choice & change *was* "imposed" upon them. Our 7-8 year occupation of that country made sure the changes *our* government ordained for them went into effect.
Hmmmm.....no "peacenik" certainly doesn't fit me. Neither does the other end of the spectrum, "berserker."
posted on October 11, 2001 04:34:01 PM
I never really paid much attention personally to Kosovo or Haiti. It's not that I feel anything about those actions is less important than others, but it's almost as if they were over before I became aware of them. It's my failing, I guess, but at those times I was pretty heavily involved in some personal medical issues that took about all of my available energy. Anyway, I can't speak to them right now, but if I get a minute or two I'll go absorb something so that I can respond sometime later.
[For anyone who knows what this means, and that would be plsmith, chocolate, shosh, and probably more---EMUD was broken into and all of the water distribution maps were stolen sometime last night].
posted on October 11, 2001 04:37:16 PMkrs:Not tampering with the monarchy brought a receptiveness...
? Boy, did we "tamper" with their monarchy! Let's see, under the guidleines of the new constitution, which *we* forced on them, the emperor's powers were reduced to practically nothing--he became a figurehead only. In January of 1946, the Emperor gave an announcement to the Japanese people denying his divinity and rejecting the Japanese concept of racial superiority in a desperate bid to revive the monarchy. Yes, MacArthur saw that allowing him to continue on *as* emperor & protecting him from being tried as a war criminal made the changes to Japan easier, but all-in-all we *did* "tamper" with the office of emperor...
posted on October 11, 2001 04:41:37 PMEMUD was broken into and all of the water distribution maps were stolen sometime last night
Is EMUD like Swiftmud in Florida? (South West Florida Water Managment District). If so, I know what it means..... Where is EMUD?
[ edited by Microbes on Oct 11, 2001 04:42 PM ]
posted on October 11, 2001 07:22:04 PMWell. Hooray!! Another peacenik.
I think most of us are at heart. But we are more conserned with peace at home than peace 10,000 miles away
Make a list of 'enemy' countries sixty long and growing,
Heh??? I think there is a "list of enemies", and we beleive they are scattered in 60 counties, but not what you said. Most of the countries on that list will arrest these scum if they find them.
threaten countries with no evidence of any involvement in the WTC attack at all, no.
Other than afganistan, I've only heard "warnings" so far.
And the WTC attact isn't the only one we are looking for the perps of. The Cole. A few Embassies here and there.
