...without a major axe to grind, discuss the current geopolitical situation vis-a-vis the "center of gravity" in the Middle East: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/magazine/05EMPIRE.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail1
War almost always results from an "overdetermination" of conditions, and - from a bloodlessly abstract, information-theoretical perspective - can be seen as the forced simplification of an unbearable complexity. Precisely because the course of events has defied reduction to a single set of easily understood and accepted conclusions, and therefore to easily accepted solutions, partisans arguing on whatever side of whatever issue or subsidiary issue can almost always find the evidence they need to support whatever preferred explanation for motives and events. Competing polemics, in which ever more exaggerated absurdities are fired off against each other with ever higher levels of aggression and ever lower levels of concern for collateral damage, rehearse the conflict: This violence done to reason and civilized discourse culminates in the intellectual brutality of war-time propaganda, which does not merely parallel, but is rather of a piece with the real violence done to living beings and their possessions. Some observers will turn the process on its head, attempting to deploy the vapidity and distortions of war-related argumentation as proof that there can be no valid justification for embarking upon armed conflict. Perhaps unfortunately, this approach seems to to be just another war-torn simplism.
I came across this interview with one Ike Iossif. I don't know who he is, what he trades, or why he would appear on such a peculiar website (might be foreign) but his thoughts on Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran are worth looking at: http://aegeancapital.com/freeservices/archives1/Guests/Aegean/021116.htm
Iraq revisited ... American War Crimes During the Gulf War By Francis A. Boyle ... The Charges 3. The international crimes that have been charged and will be proven against these Defendants consist principally of the three Nuremberg Offences: the Nuremberg Crime Against Peace, that is waging an aggressive war and a war in violation of international treaties and agreements; Nuremberg Crimes Against Humanity; and Nuremberg War Crimes. In addition, these Defendants also committed grievous war crimes by wantonly violating the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare of 1907; the Declaration of London on Sea Warfare of 1909; the Hague Draft Rules of Aerial Warfare of 1923; the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977; and the international crimes of Genocide against the People of Iraq as defined by the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide of 1948 as well as by the United States' own Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, 18 U.S.C. 1901. Finally, and most heinously of all, these Defendants actually perpetrated a Nuremberg Crime against their own troops when they forced them to take experimental biological weapons vaccines without their informed consent in gross violation of the Nuremberg Code on Medical Experimentation that has been fully subscribed to by the United States government. The United States Used Prohibited Weapons Capable of Mass Destruction and Inflicting Indiscriminate Death and Unnecessary Suffering Against Both Military and Civilian Targets 31. Fuel air explosives were used against troops in place, civilian areas, oil fields and fleeing civilians and soldiers on two stretches of highway between Kuwait and Iraq. One seven mile stretch called the "Highway of Death" was littered with hundreds of vehicles and thousands of dead. All were fleeing to Iraq for their lives. Thousands were civilians of all ages, including Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians and other nationalities. 32. Napalm was used against civilians and military personnel, as well as to start fires. Oil well fires in both Iraq and Kuwait were intentionally started by U.S. aircraft dropping napalm and other heat intensive devices. 33. Cluster bombs and anti-personnel fragmentation bombs were used in Basra, and other cities and towns, against the civilian convoys of fleeing vehicles and against military units. 34. "Superbombs" were dropped on hardened shelters with the intention of assassinating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - a war crime in its own right. ... more at http://www.mediareviewnet.com/American War Crimes During the Gulf War.htm regards wild
Still waiting for your reply.... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=183776#post183776
I no longer have a major concern about the Iraqi people. Once they voted Saddam into office with 100% support. For me, that means that they have consciously decided to follow and support him to the end. It is times like this that the metal of a peoples must rise through. Anyone who desires to overthrow the government needs to make that decision and now take action. Otherwise, I can not be too concerned that they have not desired to change their allegiances. That's what war is all about. Make the other guy die for his cause. I have always been amazed when the odds are weighed and the lopsided event is at hand how many folks want to look to the apparent victor and cry foul. The cry of, "Your bomb has more range," or "Your technology tilts the odds too far!" become the mantra. Why don't you spend the energy and time saying, "Saddam, you need to stop because you can't win this. You'll be sacrificing your people in something that they really don't understand." You should take the time to call on him for some understanding. Always going to the other guy can't be your ONLY strategy. Or is it that you don't think he would listen to you?
Hear, hear... Canyon, Wild's response will be to post another far-left/liberal article. In his mind, the US is responsible for EVERY one of the world's ills....
Iraq revisited ... American War Crimes During the Gulf War By Francis A. Boyle ....Let me get this strait....a German is posting articles about American War crimes? Hmm...That makes perfect sense.....American Blood for oil?? ....Now correct me I may have taken a different History course, but was there any Oil in Germany, France and the rest of Europe when Germany not ONCE but TWICE tried to conquer the world?.......Now Im sure a lot of guys will come on board and say it was fabricated, but the last time I checked my history book, the German regime of only two generations ago, tried genocide and tried to totally eliminate a race off the face of the planet.....What were the german's looking for? Was the blood for Oil? I didn't think the Jews had Oil...Your People wiped out six million ..( 6,000,000) Jews because of what????/ ANd don't give me this B.S about "it was Hitler not us"....He had soldiers and people behind him...In fact, He also had the French who "turned over their Jews in order to be sparred".....Brave people....So please do not insult me with this American War crimes crap...And let's be realistic...If it wasn't for Nuclear Bombs, The newly Unified Germans would make Paris their new capital.