Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10229

quote:

---

...For a year now, the president and many in his team have privately described the confrontation with Saddam Hussein as something of a demonstration conflict, an experiment in forcible disarmament. It is also the first war conducted under a new national security strategy, which explicitly calls for intervening before a potential enemy can strike.
Mr. Bush's aides insist they have no intention of making Iraq the first of a series of preventive wars. Diplomacy, they argue, can persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Intensive inspections can flush out a similar nuclear program in Iran. Threats and incentives can prevent Syria from sponsoring terrorism or fueling a guerrilla movement in Iraq.

Yet this week, as images of American forces closing in on Baghdad played on television screens, some of Mr. Bush's top aides insisted they were seeing evidence that leaders in North Korea and Iran, but not Syria, might be getting their point.
"Iraq is not just about Iraq," a senior administration official who played a crucial role in putting the strategy together said in an interview last week. It was "a unique case," the official said. But in Mr. Bush's mind, the official added, "It is of a type."...

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

If this becomes a trend, I do think we will see a backlash.

we are suppressing the symptoms of the disease, rather than curing the illness.

sigh

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

Syria was already next on the list of targets that must be handled with force, Iraq topping that list. They know we can't do the same in North Korea, we have to be diplomatic there. I don't think this is starting a trend, I think this is the United States of America looking out for itself since the rest of the world would rather be taken over than lift a finger.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

quote:

---

Originally posted by Vegas
I don't think this is starting a trend, I think this is the United States of America looking out for itself since the rest of the world would rather be taken over than lift a finger.

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smug Git
Damn those Iraqis and their plans for world domination.

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

*sniggers at Smugian sarcasm*

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

i would imagine that if syria and iran become targets in the future, the muslims in the area are going to get pretty fucking mad.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

I agree BP. They will be very scared, but even more angry.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: All over the place
Posts: 2803

And if we treat North Korea with kid gloves in comparison it will only encourage the ISlamic world that the only way to stand up to America invading and killing it's sons and daughters is to get the bomb.

This is obviously what we want.

And of course, all this also makes it more likely that there will be an Islamic revolt in Pakistan. Which has the bomb already. Phewee. Am looking forward to that.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 18148

quote:

---

Originally posted by Buddha's Penis!
i would imagine that if syria and iran become targets in the future, the muslims in the area are going to get pretty fucking mad.

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10152

Hopeful indeed -- hearing a lot of cheering this morning in the streets of Iraq.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

I think that the level of anti-americanism in Iran is intense even amongst those who oppose the government. It has been interesting seeing the opinions of journalists who have been in Iraq for some time, who say that the ordinary Iraqi people are friendly and hospitable to them even though we have imposed sanctions and dropped bombs (the undertone being that they aren't particularly anti-american or anti-british at a fundamental level). I don't know much about the syrians (although an invasion there would be a massive incitement to palestinans, who aren't shy about recreational suicide bombing), but I think that Iran might be a very hard place to administer if we were to invade there. Of course, the UN could easily be used in that regard.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

quote:

---

Originally posted by MstrG
Hopeful indeed -- hearing a lot of cheering this morning in the streets of Iraq.

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged