International Protests today 15/2

[RadicalEd0]

Iraq is more fucked up than ever. When saddam took office, his first assembly consisted of all the major officials in the country congregating in one large hall, as he sat smoking a cigar and reading off names. As a name was read, the person was taken out and never seen again

Recently, some sort of meeting was held among top officials to address something (what it was escapes me). Saddam was like.. what should we do about this. Everyone was silent, after like a half an hour a guy said well, I think if we do this then so and so, and he was taken out and killed.

all of the scientists working at inspection sites and their families were issued written notes of death if they spoke.

public excecutions happen on major streets every week or so.

saddam propaganda is everywhere. Children grow up learning to hate america. Initiations into the army consist of wrestling a live dog to the ground and eating it alive.

Iraq is fucked up.
Whether we should be getting our noses in and trying to hit the governmental reset button is another question.

[UncleMilo]

Whether we should be getting our noses in and trying to hit the governmental reset button is another question.

We already did that. It was the US that put Sadam in power in the first place and helped train and equip his people. It didn't matter to the US government what he did to his own people, so long as he did what we told him.

The US has quite the track record for "pushing the reset button" on other countries.



1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.

1954: U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed.

1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.

1963-1975: American military kills 4 million civilians in Southeast Asia.

September 11, 1973: U.S. stages coup in Chile. Democratically elected president Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 5,000 Chileans murdered.

1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.

1980's: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion.

1981: Reagan administration trains and funds "contras". 30,000 Nicaraguans die.

1982: U.S. provides billions in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.

1983: White House secretly gives Iran weapons to help them kill Iraqis.

1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as President of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties

1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.

1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait.

2000-01: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in "aid".



-Uncle Milo

[CaTaClYsM]

is it right to kill people who kill people to prove that killing is wrong?

[kthulhu]

I'd be willing to bet there's also a fair amount of anger left over in Iraq because of our promises of (and failure to deliver) support to groups who wanted to revolt against Saddam's regime after we left. In a sense, we kind of stifled a peoples' revolution over there before it had a chance to get somewhere.

In the chaos of a bombed Baghdad and the immediate post war atmosphere (and considering how many Iraqi troops surrendered to the allied forces, probably because they were not willing to take a bullet for Saddam's government), a democratically led revolution could've had a good chance, especially with Western military aid for the actual fighting and holding, and Western humanitarian aid to win the citizenry over to the revolutionary side. Fast forward 12 years, and there would probably be no Iraq situation like we have today - indeed, Iraq could've been a potential ally in the region. Hell, even the oil companies would've benefitted from it.

And we blew it by not keeping our promises, as well as just angering the population more. Maybe this time we will get it right.

[Metro]

"I believe it is peace for our time...
Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."
- Neville Chamberlain, September 30, 1938

[Lyrs]

We're going to war no matter what you say or do. The only thing you can determine now is how long the war will last, and that'll take a year at the min.

/end

[RadicalEd0]

yeah, theres no doubt. We decided right after 9/11 that we were going to take down iraq, it was just a question of when.
And again, whether we should be is another issue. A depressingly moot one at that :\

[whiteboywonder101]

hey, all you protesters!!! let me ask all of you this: what war has protesters stopped before it started? NONE!!!I think that protests that have to do with war are pointless, time-consuming piles of crap.

[Mr Pilkington]

I'm not against the protest, I think they are a great idea. I lets you know exactly what percentage of the population has indeed suffered brain damage. In fact I would like to attend. I would whear my best fur coat and my "Nuke France before they can surrender" shirt.
I just find it interesing that the moment North Korea nukes L.A, or Iraq pays some poor bastard homage and 72 virgins to release a Nerve Toxin dirty bomb on DC, those same people will be all: "yeah, those magnificant bastards. Kill 'em all!!" Hypocritical punks. Your no better than the French. If it was up to you we would have hand OUR country over to the Vietkong.

[kthulhu]

I just find it interesing that the moment North Korea nukes L.A, or Iraq pays some poor bastard homage and 72 virgins to release a Nerve Toxin dirty bomb on DC, those same people will be all: "yeah, those magnificant bastards. Kill 'em all!!"

Or they can be like the really out there types and say "America deserved it!". Jerry Falwell and the uber-far-left, I'm looking at you.