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Blix says Iraq better off with Saddam
Topic Started: Apr 6 2004, 01:32 PM (463 Views)
Admiralbill_gomec
UberAdmiral
This from "Roto-Reuters":

The costs of the war in Iraq have outweighed the benefits of removing Saddam Hussein, former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told a Danish newspaper.
"It's positive that Saddam and his bloody regime is gone, but when one weighs the costs, it's clearly the negative aspects that dominate," Blix told daily Jyllands-Posten in an interview.

The Swedish diplomat has criticized the United States and Britain for going to war without U.N. approval rather than allowing his team to continue its hunt for banned weapons.

In the interview, Blix said the war had contributed to a destabilization of the Middle East and a move away from democracy in the region, adding that even though Iraqis had been spared life under a dictator, it was at too high a cost.

"Bush declared war as a part of the U.S. war on terror, but instead of limiting the effects of terror, the war has laid the foundation for even more terror," Blix said.

Blix was scorned by the United States and Britain for failing to conclude Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction ahead of their invasion. But a year on, no such weapons have been found.

Blix, a lawyer and former Swedish foreign minister who at 75 now serves as chairman of Sweden's Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, retired from the United Nations last June.
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Dwayne
Profanity deleted by Hoss
Quote:
 
In the interview, Blix said the war had contributed to a destabilization of the Middle East and a move away from democracy in the region, adding that even though Iraqis had been spared life under a dictator, it was at too high a cost.

What a crock of cow caca.

Libya is proof of that.
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
No wonder that Blix couldn't find weapons of mass destruction, he is obviously a crack smoker.
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ds9074
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Admiral
I can agree with him that in the short-term the invasion of Iraq has left the region more unstable, and Iraqis might be worse off in terms of the tensions, bloodshed and lawlessness we have seen.

Hopefully though in the long term Blix will be wrong, and things in Iraq will be better. That is the goal we are now aiming for, its not going to be easy, but considering the alternatives failure is not an option.
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Sgt. Jaggs
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How about a Voyager Movie
Blix can kiss my A$$. Saddam filled him out like an application.

Iraq is much worse off now if you are talking about stability vs instability. Those animals and their 18th century behavior such as firing guns into the air and shaking their fists while chanting are all the same. Keeping your women illiterate is a big part of the problem, as women are often a voice of reason amongst savages.

What sickens me is that every time they get a police chief or an appointed leader or a volunteer to hold a post he gets targeted by umpteen factions and killed.

These animals (uncivilized lunatics) that appear to be the majority of the population of the middle east may actually need an Iron fist shoved up their backsides to be able to function. That which is brutality to ds9074 or me or you may be 'order' to them. Maybe in that regard, Blix is accurate.

With all of this and much more in mind I have such a problem with a few things. Everyone knew Saddam had WMD. Even Blix thought so. What happened to it?
I am telling you now like I told you before, something here does not add up.

Something is not right and I can't put my finger on it. We don't know all of the facts yet. I can't explain that other than I remember how the world felt before the war when Iraq's possesion of WMD was accepted, even by Teddy Kennedy.

Here is a good way to keep the United States from overthrowing Arabic states. STOP SENDING ASSAILANTS TO AMERICA TO PROVOKE US!!!

With all due respect to the citizens of the UK and Australia, some of whom here do not feel as we do, you will never know (hopefully) the feelings I felt on 9-11.

Some spineless apologists have forgotten, I have not. :realmad: I will not ever forget.
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doctortobe
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
The way to stop this is education. Terrorism of all kinds thrives on ignorance. If you can give people the chance to see that they can actually live in peace with each other rather then constantly attacking each other, the majority of the time they will choose to do so. Terrorism is the result of a few people being able to sway the opinion of the masses. Once you introduce a viable alternative, these people will start to see that their volunteer pool is beginning to dry up.

Take Palestine for example, you are starting to find many families speaking out against Hamas for trying to recruit their children to be bombers. People are no longer as willing to blow themselves up when it seems that it will do no good for the cause of the fanatics.
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Ngagh
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Huh?
doctortobe
Apr 6 2004, 06:05 PM
The way to stop this is education. Terrorism of all kinds thrives on ignorance. If you can give people the chance to see that they can actually live in peace with each other rather then constantly attacking each other, the majority of the time they will choose to do so. Terrorism is the result of a few people being able to sway the opinion of the masses. Once you introduce a viable alternative, these people will start to see that their volunteer pool is beginning to dry up.

Take Palestine for example, you are starting to find many families speaking out against Hamas for trying to recruit their children to be bombers. People are no longer as willing to blow themselves up when it seems that it will do no good for the cause of the fanatics.

Couldn't have said it any better.

-Sammi
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nztrekkie
Lieutenant
38957
Apr 6 2004, 03:28 PM
No wonder that Blix couldn't find weapons of mass destruction, he is obviously a crack smoker.

well don't forget - there was at lest one american who stated recently he would rather vote for Saddam than George Bush. (i think it was one of the family members objecting to the Bush 9/11 adverts)

and there have also been "a dog" and "the devil" who would get the votes of two other americans over the incumbent President.

Just thought you'd like to know.

PS ; you really not still holding out for WMD in Iraq are you ? Don't you realise the hunt is mostly in name only now - just to save embarrassment?
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
I think the phrase we're all searching for, well most of us anyway ;) , is: Sour Grapes. Might not make good wine, but I suspect it would turn out some kick a$$ vinegar...
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
He's right. (Mostly anyhow.)

Jagalom :
what is the connection between Iraq before it was invaded and 911 ?

PS - I stayed up all night (it was night time here) and was just as horrified by what I was seeing in realtime as most everyone I know was and had a hard time explaining to my children what had happened - they were very upset when they saw the news later that day.
But Iraq , or Saddam or his people WERE NOT involved in the 911 attacks.
911 was simply an excuse used by some to act against the interests of the civilised world.

Mind you we Australians don't seem as easily rattled as you Americans seem to be and paranoia and the desire to spill blood (and lots of it) didn't take hold here.
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Sgt. Jaggs
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How about a Voyager Movie
Like I said, it just doesn't add up. I know how it looks to all of the apologists now, but I remember how the world felt about Iraq before the war, how everyone knew he used chemicals against Kurds before how he used them in the Iran / Iraq war.

Saddam was under orders by the International community, the U.N., to submit to inspection and turn over any and all WMD and their means of delivery which includes missles that have range of 'x' or more, like SCUDs. At this point Saddam engaged in hiding and moving his arsenal and was not cooperative.
He believed he could toy with the bureaucracy of the U.N. at his convenience.

Don't you remember all of that? The ties to 9-11 are that we are at war.
We had a cease fire with Iraq after the gulf war contingent upon Saddams capitulation and agreement to abide by U.N. resolutions. No fly zones were enforced regularly. In was in our best interest to remove the threat percieved from Iraq. He had his chances and thumbed his nose at the U.N. .


What was done had a legal mandate lain down by resolution 1441.

It does not seem to add up now because you have forgotten most of this.
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
Pardon me for saying so Somerled, but Australians don't have to really worry about it. If anything bad happens, the USA will always be here to help (ala WWII). And also, it wasn't Sydney that was bombed, it NY and DC USA. You don't know how rattled you would be. This really just more of your America bashing.

While I love Australia and like having the country as an ally, I don't think any of our allies have to worry about being in the crosshairs of our enemies the way the USA does. We are the primary target. The rest of the allies do get some benefit from this. I am not saying that terrorists would not love to bring chaos and destruction to our allies, but the most want to bring it to the USA.

They hate our (USA and its Allies) success in the last century. They are jealous and think that it should be thier success. After all the Muslim civilization was once rivaled by none, but is now in decline and more than a century behind the Western civilizations. This is difficult for them to accept. It might make them think that they are not favored by God if they have to face up to their failure. So, they blame us. They consider us to be satan and being used to punish them for not being whatever they feel they should be. They think God wants them to kill us. Do we fight or flee?
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Sgt. Jaggs
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How about a Voyager Movie
^^^ Funny how only Americans understand this, isn't it? Why is that. Seriously.
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
Quote:
 
Funny how only Americans understand this, isn't it? Why is that. Seriously.


I am assuming you are refering to my last paragraph.

I thought about your question for a while before coming back to this to reply. America is by and large a much more conservative culture than modern European cultures. Conservative politically, that is. The Liberal mindset would see people with a problem and immediately assign them 'victim' status and look for a culprit (usually the most affluent and successful, like the West) and what can the culprit do to fix it for the victims. A Conservative, however, would look at the same people with a problem and ask how they got themselves into this mess and what are they doing to solve their problem.

Building on that, most of the 'leftist conventional wisdom' is that the Arab world is in its backward state because of the mean-old westerners using their money and power to keep these people down in the dirt and we must change the way we treat them to make their lives better so they won't hate us anymore and all this other feel-good stuff. This is what I commonly here from the dominant press. The Arabs are the victims, victims of the prosperous and powerful west, and we have somehow caused all the animosity they have toward us are the west is really to blame for the violence committed against us. If only we were more caring. It is roughly akin to guilty-white-guy syndrom.

The conservative take is that these guys have screwed up things for themselves, can't admit that so blame us out of jealousy. And as long as they continue in this mindset, they will be mired in failure. I could go on, but you get the idea.

So, Europe being left leaning relatively speaking would more likely view things the left way, and America being more conservative would take the different view.

And nztrekkie, being a complete nut-job, would spout off all sorts of inflamatory non-sense in an attempt to bait myself, ABG, minuet, et.al. into a fight.

Signed, conservative American
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ds9074
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Admiral
Quote:
 
Australians don't have to really worry about it. If anything bad happens, the USA will always be here to help (ala WWII).


I wouldnt count on in if WW2 is the benchmark. We asked for help defending freedom but it wasnt forthcomming until your own interests were hit. When Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand et al stood together against Hitler in 1940 where were the US troops?
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