@amigamad
You are too simplistic. The fact is, as I hate strong armed tactics, and the worst offender of all is Saddam Hussein.
For all the bad decisions our government may have made, it isn't anything on par with the type of cruel, horrible tyrant Saddam Hussein is...I don't feel sorry for him at all. Given that he needed to be brought to justice, what is the best way? Not *IF* but how...
The best way, would have been for the iraqi ppl to do it, but they never did. But, nevertheless I am reminded of the many other options that don't include bombing children at restaurants.
Is it OK to consider them?
For some reason I think of Nicaragua, I guess because its an example where we tried to fund Contra rebels instead of invading ourselves, but its a bit of a lousy example. We supported the Samoza dictatorship for 40 years, and then when the people of Nicaragua FINALLY got rid of their dictator without our help, we then set about to destroy the Sandinistas....a government that took the illiteracy rate from 50% down to 13%...had free elections resulting in their party winning in a popular vote as well, but still we funded the contra's forcing the government to spend almost all its resources on defense.
Well that isn't a shining example of how to do it either....but its another option to consider.
We talk about the need to stop the Hitler's of the world, but how would have we stopped Stalin, Lennon, or Mao, even with 20/20 Hindsight....anyone going to suggest invading the one billion plus China?
Or a nuclear force, like Russia?
Eventually we will need to have some solutions in mind that will work against countries that aren't almost completely defenseless, so we should think about it....in some cases we will have to think about persuasion.
And considering that Hitler was freely elected, God forbid, but what if we ever elect a madman? (no we haven't done that, I support our president, as our president, even if I don't agree with his decisions and will vote against him)....but what if we ever did, remember....a president doesn't need to consult congress before starting wars, he has absolute control. We keep removing all our safety nets, calling them loopholes, instead of what they really were, which is thoughtful checks based on a study of history and abuses that occur with power.
I'm not a liberal, but I will say one thing, I believe absolutely is true. People like Timothy McVeigh, they weren't a result of too much love. Tim McVeigh knew people hated him (or thought they did), and he hated them back.
hate breads hate...it doesn't make the world safer.
Go ahead and criticize pacifists if you want, a true pacificist isn't going to kill you, and in the end, its the people doing the killing that are the problem. I think hating pacifists is a bit silly.
I'm no pacifist.....I was in the Army myself...oh ya, no kidding....
I am just concerned about the pro-war fever, it's too nationalistic, it isn't tempered with caution. It's too one sided.
In short, its scary. But I will be glad when the war is over, and I do think, that one good thing that will come of it, is a better government in Iraq, and I am happy for the Iraqi people in that regard.