Eileen,
its a horrible and tragic situation where the innocent are punished. I heard today that 2 Italian women aid workers were executed (unconfirmed report). These are not soldiers, or civilians looking to make money - these were aid workers who went over to help the iraqi people.
2 american civillians have been beheaded. Ok arguably they shouldn't have been in Iraq - but perhaps they thought they were doing good. In any case they were innocent victims.
And now a British man has had to plead for his life - to beg in public to Mr Blair. His reason for wanting to live - to see his wife who couldn't go on without him.
He said this to Mr Blair:
"You are the only person on God's earth who can help me."
"I think this is possibly my last chance," he says, sobbing repeatedly.
"I don't want to die... Please free female prisoners held in Iraqi prisons."
His release was tantalisingly close to being arranged. The Iraqi regime was apparently willing to release the 2 women they held. But the US was unwilling to budge.
Its a horrible situation, and there can be no excuse for the cold-blooded murder of innocent civillians. But this is a war. And its a dirty war. All I can say is that this is carried out by the most extreme who are oustside the control of their own religious leaders who have outlawed such practices (Mo4 posted an article a while back to that effect).
Ask yourself who created this mess in the first place? It was us - the allies who flouted international law (according to Kofi Annan himself), and bombed a defenseless country in a display of arrogant power before invading it. Operation "Infinite Justice". I thought only God could dispense infinite justice?
In the UK we were told that Mr Blair wanted to go to war because of all the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam held - weapons that could be deployed within 45 minutes and fired at Britain. This flew in the face of all the evidence - 10 years of crippling Iraqi sanctions, not a shred of evidence for WMD's with every survey group (including Hans Blix) reporting the same - that there were no WMD's. We went in anyway despite huge opposition - 2 million people marching against the war in London - the largest demonstration this country has seen - ever. And now we find out it was all a lie. There were no WMD, and there hadn't been for a decade! And the 45 minute claim refered to regular battle-field munitions which couldn't go very far and didn't pose a threat to anyone. All the evidence had been concocted. Tony Blair's real reason for going to war was that the US was going to war, and he wanted to stick with them.
In the US I believe the reason Bush gave for going to war was "regime change". Not only does this fly in the face of international law (which forbids invading a country for regime change), but ask yourself who put Saddam in power in the first place?
Saddam Hussein was the Wests biggest ally in the middle-east. He came to power via a CIA-backed coup, and until 1990 was a US stooge. Throughtout the Iran-Iraq war Saddam was very much the friend and ally of the west - all his weapons came from Europe and America. Who else do you think armed him? As long as he was killing Iranians and Kurds the west was happy.
But then in 1990, he invaded Kuwait. The US's initial response was "We are not interested in your inter-arab border disputes", but when they realised their oil interests were threatened suddenly it was all go. The rest is history as they say.
So we know why Blair went to war - to ride on America's coat-tails. But why did Bush go to war? There are several reasons:
1. OIL - Iraq is one of the most oil-rich country's in the world. It is of prime strategic importance. It was very much seen as a soft target - especially after 10 years of crippling sanctions. The US is by far the biggest consumer of OIL in the world - 5% of the world's population consuming 25% of its resources. They say that if the entire world consumed at the rate America does, the world's resources would run out in 100 years. The fact is that the world can only sustain one America. Perhaps this is why America refuses to sign the Kyoto treaty on the reduction of greenhouse gases and refuses to face up to real problems - i.e. catastrophic enviromental destruction brought about through unbridalled capitalism and instead chooses to focus on phoney wars. Wars on greed don't win elections. Wars on "terror" do.
It is no coiincidence that Bush is a texan, and he and his family are intimately involved in the Texan oil business. He also has close personal/business links in the middle east - including Saudi Arabia (where most of the 911 hijackers came from). Perhaps this is why when airspace was reopened after 911, the first flight out was full of saudi officials/dignitaries including members of the bin laden family.
2. Military might - with the demise of the soviet Union, the US is the worlds only superpower. The greatest arsenal of weapons ever assembled in the history of the world/mankind. The defense sector is a key part of the US economy. And the economy is what wins elections and funds parties. If there is one universal truth in warfare its that weapons are made to be used. The war machine has to create its own market if it is to survive. Research and development has to be justified. Weapons sitting on a shelf are no good to anyone. So how does the defense industry work? By capitalising on war, by creating a demand for war, and by sustaining that demand. War creates weapons and weapons create war. Its a viscious circle. Also Americas political power and influence depends on its displays of military power.
3. Wars win elections. Its the oldest game in town - its been going on since Julius Ceaser. In order to gain power and prestige a leader will instigate a war. When attacked people defend themselves. Vladimir Putin did it in Chechnya in 1999 when after a humiliating military defeat in the early 1990's when Russian forces were forced to withdraw he created the means to come back. He (being a former KGB agent) instigated a series of bombing campaigns in Moscow which he blamed on Chechens. He then provoked a phoney war, which soon became a real war. This isn't some
Conspiracy theory. These are facts reported by mainstream media - the Economist reported the fake bombing campain, and the BBC showed a documentary where Berezovsky - a close advisor to Yeltsin openly admitted that the war was deliberately provoked by Russia.
There are quite a few other reasons why Bush went to war including a group of people called the "neo-cons", which I won't go into now. But the opportunity presented itself (or rather it was created). The prize was too good to miss.
The search for truth is not an easy road to travel, because it requires an incredible commitment of time and energy. Often it means going against the crowd. But it is incredbily rewarding when you discover that X,Y and Z aren't just random acts, but follow from A,B, and C. Fear (which all of us suffer from) feeds off ignorance (which all of us suffer from).
I don't claim to have a monopoly on the truth. And I don't want to be in a position to judge anyone, because I am the person who has most to fear from judgement.
But I do know that you are a sincere person Eileen. This has always come across in your posts, even if I disagreed with them. There are others on here who I wouldn't even give the time of day to because they are not sincere.
You don't have to believe everything I say, but I am always willing to back up what I say with evidence and to have that evidence refuted if need be.
JV.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3682246.stm