[Joe]
I would like us to be more selective about to whom we sell our
weapons, taking into account their form of government as well as
whether or not it is tilting in our direction at the time. But having said
that, every sovereign nation has the right to make or purchase arms to
defend its citizens and borders.
[ben]
Or attack their neighbors. Or kill their own citizens. As long as somewhere
in the ruckus, an American corporation makes money...
[Joe 2]
His attacking his neighbors, killing his own citizens with chemical
weapons, and attempting to manufacture and obtain weapons of mass
destruction are three reasons that we find Saddam Hussein's rule of
Iraq unacceptable. We will not sell weapons to him no matter how
much money an american corporation could profit from such a deal.
[Casey]
If I remember correctly, the US supported Iraq, and Saddam Hussein, in
their war against Iran. The govt. supplied them with the weaponry and it's
explicit support through various means of monetary funding. At that time,
he was also REALLY chummy with the CIA. Why so? Because, he was fighting the
"enemy" of the US - Iran. Why wasn't he considered an enemy then? Didn't the govt.
have the intelligence to indicate that Iraq was in the midst of possibly having
the technology to develop weapons of mass destruction --- I'm referring to
nuclear weapons, and not bio/chem weapons; since we all saw the effects
those had on the Iranians in combat (hell, even his own troops).
It just seems like the US picks and chooses it's "friends" and "enemies" without
seriously considering the consequences. If the US were truly considering the
possibility of these consequences you would think that the US would have been
playing the game better. I mean the US is, after all, one of the most technologically
developed nations on this planet. Didn't we need some brains for that? Oh, I
forgot, technology and the workings of the govt. do not fall under the same brain trust,
but I digress.
If the US really wants to win the hearts and minds of foreign people, like Dubya says,
then the govt. should rethink it's implementation of foreign policy. It's been a bit
on the poor side in the last 30 or so odd years. OK, we can argue that it's been
pretty poor longer than that, but lets keep it easy and keep it at that.
On the flip side, I think that the US has done good for peoples the world over (we can
discuss this further if y'all want). But, since we are so addicted to petrochemicals the US
tends to think in terms of business and economic interests before it begins to even
contemplate the misery that those business and economic interests have on the rest
of humanity.
Kind regards,
Casey
ps. I think I suffer from ADHD so my posts may seem all over the place. My apologies.
And, yes, I'm serious! cheesy
---- This message was posted by Casey to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25860>
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