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On
the Iraq War
President
Bush and his courtiers have made an issue of Saddam Hussein attacking his
neighbors and killing his own people, and they have made this an argument
to justify war. There are compelling reasons for wanting to see the end of
Saddam Hussein and his cohorts but none good enough to justify a war that
would result in the deaths of tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of
innocent victims. There
are a number of points that these proponents don't make on the issue of
attacking neighbors and killing of citizens by their own governments.
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The
United States and British governments helped Iraq after it attacked Iran with the full knowledge
that Saddam Hussein was an unsavory character. See If
Saddam is such a monster, why did we arm him and trade with him? -
editorial by The Independent (UK)
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The
United States has supported a string of dictators in Indonesia that have
murdered their own citizens and invaded East Timor where they slaughtered
hundreds of thousands of East Timoreans with American-made weapons. See The Nation's
review of Samantha Powers' book: A Problem from Hell:
America and the Age of Genocide at http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020520&c=4&s=nevins
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There
are, of course, many examples around the world where the American CIA
helped overthrow democratically elected governments that were replaced by
approved dictators who went on to brutalize, torture and murder their own
citizens: Iran in 1953 and Central and South America are tips of
this iceberg.
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Check the
human rights records of some of our so-called
friends (for example: Turkey,
Israel, Egypt,
Saudi
Arabia,
Kuwait and Pakistan) on the Amnesty
International and Human
Rights Watch web sites. While you are at it, check the human
rights records of the United States, Spain and the United
Kingdom. Amnesty International also offers recommendations
to resolve Iraq's human rights problems without the necessity of
going to war.
Suggested
Reading: Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central
America, 1977-1992 by William M. LeoGrande; Blowback by
Chalmers Johnson, and The Trial of Henry
Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
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