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___THE CASE FOR WAR___
While the United States moves inexorably towards war with Iraq, it s
easy---indeed fashionable---- to simply paint George W. Bush as a
warmonger. Some choose to depict him as the world s biggest bully who has
deliberately gone out and picked a fight he knows he can t lose.
This is simply not a realistic view of the brewing conflict with
Iraq, however. Nor is it a particularly ingenious view of international
politics.
Motivations for calling Bush a warmonger range from the absurd to the
banal. Bush is painted as someone looking to avenge the mistakes of his
father, or as someone looking to take the heat off his own domestic policy
failings by diverting his nation s attention thousands of miles away.
Such a view, however, takes the heat off the real aggressor in
this potential conflict. Saddam Hussein has systemically terrorized his own
people. He has crossed the borders of neighboring countries and terrorized
their citizens. Saddam has been building up a now-proven reserve of
chemical warfare material and missiles, the use of which can only be to
terrorize the Middle East, and perhaps beyond. He attacked Kuwait. He
lobbed missiles at Israel.
Consider the Marsh People, an indigenous group of several
hundred thousand people who lived in stilt houses in the vast Iraqi
marshlands. Not any more. Because they didn t support Saddam, he has filled
in the marshes and either murdered or driven out all but a few thousand of
these people.
Saddam has systematically murdered any potential internal foes,
when he has forced people to confess to supposed slights against him or his
regime by making them watch their own children being raped and tortured by
his thugs.
As U.S. Secretary General Colin Powell so boldly pointed out to
the UN Security Council this past week, the inspections for weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq have been a waste of time. Saddam has ignored every
United Nations overture to disarm or submit to some kind of
sanction---dozens of them reaching back 12 years. He has befuddled
inspectors, who after weeks of on-the-ground searches of Iraqi facilities
still know less about what Iraq is capable of than the U.S. does.
There is no mystery why the UN sanctions exist. The only reason
for them---and for the first Gulf War---is because of Saddam s own
aggressive actions and policies.
In short, by his every action Saddam has proven himself to be a
dangerous madman with an immense and growing arsenal at his disposal. He is
an international terrorist and a threat to peaceful society. He is a warmonger.
The argument that Saddam should be left alone to pursue his
maniacal destiny comes down to blissful ignorance. So what if Saddam has
chemical and biological weapons? So he has by turns ignored and thumbed his
nose at the UN while abusing his own citizens and threatening those of his
neighbour s.
Someone has to stop Saddam before he strikes again. The
international community, which sadly includes Canada, will not. George W.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have accepted the
challenge. Thank God someone has.
_______________________
Scott MacLean
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ: 9184011
http://www.nerosoft.com
