@Yanny:
Reasons to attack Iraq, according to you guys:
-
Human rights abuses. Iraq is a totalitarian, facist country. Not a fun place to live to say the least.
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The never proven Iraq-Al Quaeda collaboration theory.
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Weapons of Mass Destruction, Not abiding by treaty to disarm.
Human Rights Abusers:
- Saudi Arabia
- Pakistan
- Libya
- North Korea
- China
- Sierra Leon
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Israel
Countries proven to collaborate with Al-Quaeda and similar groups
- Saudi Arabia
- Pakistan
- Sudan
- Indonesia (certain members of their Government only)
- Iran
Rogue Nations with weapons of mass destruction and/or developing them and/or refusal to abide by Security council resolutions.
- Israel
- Pakistan
- Iran
- North Korea
- Libya
- Syria
Iraq, by no means, tops any of those lists. But lets look at some of the countries.
Pakistan - Nuclear weapons. Extremely Oppresive Government. Failing to help hunt down Osama and Al Quaeda.
Iran - Working on Nuclear Weapons. Sponsors Al Quaeda and has a history of terrorism against the US. Oppressive Government, with tens of millions of people wanting a Democracy, but need help.
North Korea - Most oppresive Government on the planet. Has prohibited Nuclear Weapons. Has means of delivering the Nuclear Weapons. International arms supplier. Sociopath leader. Threw out weapons inspector. Using US money intended for energy aid to fund Nuke program.
Saudi Arabia - Extreme supporter of terrorism. Most oppresive Government in the Middle East.
Iraq - Very oppressive Government. No links to Al Quaeda. Kicked out Inspectors 5 years ago. Has a handful of Bio and Chemical weapons. Violated 14 UN resolutions.
Israel - Democracy which only applies to half the population. Kills innocents on live TV. Uses US weapons. Refuses to live up to promises to UN and US. Has broken scores of UN resolutions, including treaties signed by Israel itself.
Now, heres why we aren’t focuses on those other countries.
Israel - Too much public sympathy. We give them over 3,000,000 dollars in weapons each year.
Saudi Arabia - We already get oil from them. Bush has oil interests in Saudi Arabia.
Iran - No real finicial gain for the US. Bush is unwilling to see the huge democratic, western friendly movement going on.
North Korea/Pakistan - Too much of a fight for Bush. Not easy targets. No real economic gain.
So, what sets Iraq apart from all those countries listed above?
No country is obligated to obey UN resolutions because all countries are sovreign over themselves. But Iraq is obligated for losing the Gulf War. Israel is a democracy and the population is allowed to vote. In the last elections, the Arab parties won a total of 9 seats in the Israeli parliament. They are allowed to vote. Remember that Palestinians are Jordanian citizens that are autonomous. What treaties has Israel broken that it has signed? Israel has not broken the Oslo Accords nor any other treaty it has signed. The PA was given authority over the Palestinians and they continue to have it. If anyone is a supporter of Al-Qaeda, there’s one for you to look at. The Palestinians were celebrating after 9/11, giving candy out to the children. Though Arafat claimed that only a few children were celebrating and thaning Allah, adults were clearly seen also doing so. Do not forget which country was the one who turloy saved Kuwait. Israel was the one who knocked out the Iraqi nuclear reactor before it made hundreds of nuclear weapons operational. Imagine how the Persian Gulf War would have turned out if that had not happened. If you believe the pcitures that the mdeia, shows you, then you seriously have a problem differentiating between what is true and what is made to look true. For example, the New York Times once put in their newspaper a pciture of a severely beaten and bleeding boy with an ISraeli officer with a club behind him pointing it in his direction and yelling. The caption said that the ISraeli officer was beating up the Palestinian boy. When an American family saw this, they sent in a formal complaint saying that it was an Israeli boy, their son, who had been beaten up by Palestinians at the start of the intifada. He was in critical condition. The police officer was yelling at the Palestinians to back off and saved the boy. So the Times made a correction in next week’s newspaper, in a very small font atthe bottom of the page telling that they had made a mistake so it would not be seen.
Then we have the time where the newspapers said that the IDF killed some Palestinians who left hand print marks on the western wall. Now when you look at the pictures of the handmarks, you would notice how neat and itdy they look. Any person who was shot would not just start putting nice neat hand prints on a wall but would more likely make a handprint and drag the blood to the floor has he fell to the ground. The camera does not lie, but it can be MADE to lie.
Be careful of what the media feeds you, there is always the attempt to increase ratings by twisting the truth and facts, particularly on the Israeli issue but also on the Iraq issue. The point of this post is just to warn you, Yanny, find credible sources on which to base your work. The best book on the Arab-Israeli conflict is “From Time Immemorial” by Joan Peters. She spent 7 years researching it and drew her conclusions based on that. A third of the book is her references and bibliography. I strongly recommend it. I personally have only read a bit of it, but I intend to finish it.
BTW, you forgot to mention that Sudan still has an illegal slave trade there.And if you are following breakers of UN resolutions, maybe Spain should be on that list for 35 years of Fascism, keeping the Basque province as part of Spain against their will and making only token reforms despite demands by the western world. Morocco should also be there for occupying Western Sahara, and China for occupying Sinkiang and tibet. Even Manchurians want independence from China. Do not forget Russia for Chechnya, and the USA for California, Arizona and New Mexico ;). The British in Northern Ireland is also a military occupation, like Israel of the territories. According to your criteria of aggressors and human rights abusers, there should be many more being added to your list. It is convenient to have some and not others there.