Sunday, May 28, 2006

A Message for the Left

Is there no one on the left who can be stirred into action by genocide? Do you have to base your opinion of Iraq and Iraqis under Saddam Hussein solely on the words and actions of the current American president? What about the hundreds of thousands of dead and exiled Iraqis and those who speak for them? Why not listen to their voices?

Organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, year after year, produced reports like this one. The UN's Special Rapporteur on Iraq did the same, and, in fact, declared Iraqi’s regime to be the worst human rights violator since Hitler. There are numerous websites with documentation as well, such as this one, this one and this and this.

Have you forgotten the work done by Iraqi opposition groups in exile and their appeals to Western leaders such as Bush and Blair? Have you forgotten that Clinton, too, wanted the regime toppled and it was he, as President, who put his signature on the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, and announced it using these words:

"The United States wants Iraq to rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. This is in our interest and that of our allies within the region.

The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home. I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian make-up. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else. The United States looks forward to a democratically supported regime that would permit us to enter into a dialogue leading to the reintegration of Iraq into normal international life.

My Administration has pursued, and will continue to pursue, these objectives through active application of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. The evidence is overwhelming that such changes will not happen under the current Iraq leadership."


Why are you so fixated on the WDM issue? Have you forgotten that most of the democracies in the world believed Saddam Hussein either had or was preparing to resume production of WMD? It wasn't just the US, and certainly not just Bush. The Clinton administration believed it and so did the majority of Congress. Your rote repetition of the "Bush Lied" mantra is sickening.

Are you saying that the leaders in a host of countries like Great Britain, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, Australia, Norway, the Philippines, Hungary, Portugal, Netherlands, Iceland and Spain also lied?

If you are, then refute this, this and this, will you?

Your notion, repeated so often as to be nauseating, that because there are other tyrants in the world where there is no oil, then the invasion of Iraq must be only for oil, is never supported with even the tiniest shred of evidence. But then you proceed to engage in the most sophistric arguments imaginable, so it shouldn't be surprising. When asked to name another tyrant whose kill record approximates Saddam Hussein, and who is still massacring people, your best attempt is to name tyrants who have long since gone, or whose record doesn't even come close.

Your position brings to mind a scenario wherein a person walking on the banks of a swift and turbulent river sees three people drowning. One of them is close and within easy reach, but the person on the river bank decides not to save the drowning man for the simple reason that he cannot save all three.

Instead, your best argument is that they should be taught how to swim. Well it's a bit too late, that. At worst, you decry those who make an effort to save the drowning man, simply because they didn't make an argument before hand which pleases you.

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