On 15 Aug 2002 at 21:51, Andy Brice wrote:
> > Sometimes, a politician must rise to the level of statesman and,
> > even if it involves personal political sacrifice, pursue a
> > domestically unpopular and politically costly yet strategically
> > required, correct and beneficial course. It's called having
> > integrity. It's called being a leader and not
> a
> > follower. The potential nuclear stakes a few years out are too high
> > for Blair to play politics with this one, and he 'bloody well' knows
> > it.
>
> The USA already has enough military might to bomb Iraq from its current
> mediaeval state back to the stone age, without any help from Britain.
>
> Why stop at Iraq? There must be other vicious despots that *might* be
> working on nuclear weapons that we can bomb. North Korea perhaps?
>
> Not much oil in North Korea though.
>
The US has, since the Korean War, maintained 20,000 tripwire troops
on the border between the two countries; that border now comprises the
last functional Iron Curtain in the world. The regime in North Korea is
slowly dying as a result of its own policies; the US hopes for the two
sides to pull a Germany and reunite under democratic principles, and it
sees its role in the meantime as one of warning the North not to lash
violently out in the throes of its death rattle.
>
> An aside - why did Bush snr stop Desert Storm from going all the way
> and overthrowing Saddam? Was it simply due to fear at the public
> response to pictures of the slaughter of Iraqi troops?
>
No, it was publicly because the UN mandate only extended to expelling
Saddam's armies from Kuwait; the actual reason was that the US feared
the resultant strength of a radical Iran. The US does not fear this as
much any more, since a trend towards moderation, personalized by the
election of and popular support for President Khatami, has been
progressively developing in Iran, and is being actively encouraged by
friendly US overtures. Recently, the Iranians actually turned over to
Saudi Arabia, with the full understanding that anything the Saudis
learned from them would be shared with the US, 16 captured Al
Quaeda members who had infiltrated across their border with
Afghanistan. This is definitely a far cry from the occupation of the US
embassy in Tehran during the Carter years.
>
> Andy Brice
>
>
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