Kinross

When you have lived thirty years under a police state where people disapear into torture prisons never to be seen again. You don't really feel indifferent when that goes away and just go on as usual with your life.

I would equate this with the fall of the Berlin Wall. People didn't feel indifferent about that.

HaysooChreesto!

You're name suits you. You had/have doubts that Iraq would be better off under temporary American leadership than Saddam Hussein? Whatever.

Most punchable list? For what it's worth, if I had a really gay list of sorts, you'd make my toilet paper list.

HaysooChreesto!

Nice job. I wonder if somewhere in your ever travelling bag of tricks if you could bother to post some pics of Saddam's lovely deeds of the past 30 years. Maybe some pics of his invasion of Iran or Kuwait would be nice. Maybe a few stills of gassed Kurd children. You could then top it off with some lovelies of tortured political prisoners-some of the ones from ages 12-17 would be just grand.

Poor Saddam. Never brought anything on himself...

Ab_Normal

When the Berlin Wall fell, the East Germans could fairly easily tell what was going to happen next. Did they fear government reprisals, or the rise of another repressive government in it's place? I don't think so.

The situation is not as clear-cut in Iraq. Does the average Iraqi really have any way to be certain that their lives are going to get better? Haven't they been fed propaganda that the US is coming in as an oppressor? Do they know what kind of government is going to replace Hussein? Heck, the folks in Basra are dealing with civil unrest and looting (and, IIRC, food and water shortages). Hospitals in Baghdad are overflowing with casualties. Were I in such a situation, being the coward that I am, I'd put my head down and "soldier thru", hoping that the future would be better... because, really, what else is there for a civilian in this situation to do?

edited to add: Just came across this story from Reuters: Iraqis Ask 'Who's In Charge?' of Baghdad

ShabbyChick

I'm a little scared of pictures like these being used by the Bush administration as reasons to "liberate" the people of Syria, Iran, etc. at the expense of the lives of our military.

Henry-Finland

Lamma wrote:So Your world is black and white?
When some people are dancing the bad dreams disappears.
Nice world.

Henry

HaysooChreesto!

No my world is far from black and white but it appears yours certainly isn't. Apparently you don't hold anyone responsible for their actions except the US. That sounds pretty goddamned black and white to me.

Sue Sponte

Setting the broader issues aside, I find it amusing that 20,000 people demonstrating in a U.S. city against the war can be ignored as an aberrant minority, while ONE Iraqi welcoming a U.S. soldier allows a conclusion that "they" support the U.S.

Such consistency in reasoning is always admired.

LymanLover

We shouldn't have installed the Baath party in the sixties. We shouldn't have sent Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq in '83 to give Saddam a "green light" to use chemical weapons against Iranians. When Halabja occurred in 1988 we should've condemned his actions. We should've done all these things, but we didn't. Our failure to do the right thing in the first place shouldn't be used as an excuse to support current atrocities.

Dr Rick

...or to ignore them. That we mishandled Iraq in the past and fail to protect human rights in through-out the world is not a good reason to tolerate Saddam. The US may have fought this war to liberate Iraq, to fight terrorism, and/or just to get oil, but reagardless of the motives behind it, the demise of any tyrant benefits humanity, even when it's done for the wrong reasons.

Rick