I, personally, think it's funny as hell that Saddam is pretty much saying 'F*ck off' to this whole b

[insidersav.livejournal.com]

Anyway, Saddam is a bastard and thats funny.

Comments

Re: you are so wrong

[lady-squirrel.livejournal.com]

You realize that your political view invalidates your first sentence above?

It's not a political belief it is a statement that if G.W. Bush did the same things here that Saddam Hussein thought he should be able to get away with, that we would scream bloody murder. It's called scandal. War is necessarily different then peace, and whether or not it was well advised to go into the country. We did. Now we have to fix it.

People are not being slaughtered and tortured en masse by us, they are in the middle of a civil war, and unfortunately we are the ones who got them into this mess where people who didn't like each other have to suddenly pick a government together, and they're mad at us for putting them into that situation- which is fair. Our government has probably engaged in some shady activities, towards people they think are terrorists, and well it's easy to make mistakes and I am sure they are making lots of them. There are different opinions in our government remember, as well as in Europe who are reluctantly helping us fix it. I don't think they should be doing that stuff in the first place and probably they should get called out for it; that doesn't mean that is their sole purpose there.

As for the UN it would perhaps have more legitimacy if politicians weren't political- however we have seldom found a cure for human nature. Granting seats to corrupt governments, such as in Africa, only means you have corrupt representatives who vote as a block. In this the institution betrays itself, and while a political solution would have been better I can understand their frustration as well. An institution is only as good as it's weakest members. If they are to be legitimate they need to reform themselves, as well as enforce their mandates. The UN had been calling for Iraq to allow inspectors into his country as he was threatening his neighbors, they didn't enforce it. Remember this didn't start with us only- Saddam didn't take them seriously either, nor does anyone else if it isn't convenient.

Legislation is only as strong as it's weakest components. If people aren't interested in Democracy they are not represented, the people who vote most consistently tend to get more representation. That's just how the politicians work, they will of course get away with whatever they are able to but they are not all powerful. If people actually took an interest in self-rule they would get more of it. Besides, the US government is not a country designed to be a world democracy, it is a country where only voting citizen's are represented, or people who can advertise to voting citizen blocks. Sometimes politics is selfish and hypocritical, that doesn't mean that the most interested interests are not being represented, that it is not a democracy.

These are not value judgements- I just felt you should know more about the world you live in. I'm a lot more pragmatic then you are, politics is not always about morality it's about passing laws that are good and take us forward rather then complaining the world isn't perfect.

The White Man's Burden

[choobie.livejournal.com]

"War is necessarily different then peace, and whether or not it was well advised to go into the country. We did. Now we have to fix it."

You are so right. Brown people are simply incapable of governing their own affairs. I wish the US had a foreign government to invade and occupy us during OUR civil war. Don't you think that would have improved things? That would have SO improved our self-determination at that critical point, don;t you think?

"People are not being slaughtered and tortured en masse by us"

Yes they are. Iraqi people. Abu Ghraib continues in several otehr locations, including Abu Ghraib again. Approximately 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, over 80% of these fatal casualties caused by the Coalition forces.

"I'm a lot more pragmatic then you are"

I see that. It IS pragmatic for Good Americans to ignore non-Americans and what happens beyond our borders, even within our borders. Doesn't concern you - I get it. Good Germans were very similar. Way to ignore morality. Way to keep morality out of politics. Way to keep the status quo. We all make choices: I see you made yours. It's all about choices. I'll try to keep my complaining to a minimum - for your benefit.

It's good that you admit the US got Iraq into their current hell. The US supported Saddam even before he was leader. The US invaded and occupied. But it's too bad that you can't make the logical leap: IT IS US MEDDLING THAT HARMS OTHER SOVEREIGN NATIONS.

As long as the US "tries to fix its mistakes" (which is not at all the case but how current US imperialism sells itself to the gullible masses at home), then it will be digging a deeper hole in Iraq. And killing civilians is not "a mistake" as you keep naively referring to the intentional policies of the US. When the US bombs a major metropolis, you can;t call killing women and children "a mistake" can you? When justifiably scared US soldiers get shot at, then spray the entire street and everyone in it full of bullets, do you also call that a lil oopsie, or is that standard operating procedure to survive as an occupying force amongst a justifiably mutinous population?

You ARE pragmatic in that it is more beneficial to Americans to keep their heads in the sand, stay the course, think the best of the morality and intentions of the most powerful government the world has ever seen.

Power corrupting? Heavens no; that never happens! How pragmatic: an utterly childish trust in (only your) state. Kind of like "Daddy hits Mommy a lot but he meant well and it was a mistake, even though Daddy still does it."

Please explain how an occupied country is democratic.

And provide the non-corporate and "non-political" sources you get your information from.