Should the USA be the World's Policeman

[daan]

We still cant deny that Iraq used chemical weapons on its surrounding countries during/afer the gulf war.
We also cant deny that Saddam teaches his people that he won the gulf war.
We cant deny that Saddam is dangerous and volatile.
Despite what motives the USA has, leaving iraq be isnt a very good solution either.

I dont have them right now, but an ancient roman commander once faced the same problem. Rome was asked to help the greek from countering an invasion.
The roman people however were tired of war and many believed that Rome only wanted to participate, in order to gain more influence in the world and become richer.

The commander then held a beautifull speech, listing many previous occassions of passiveness leading to eventual disaster.
F.e.
Not aiding one of their allied border-cities that was under siege soon enough because of too much discussion. By the time the decision to help was made, the city had already fallen and the enemy was now attacking the rest of rome.

*Would* they have acted sooner, that war wouldnt have been fought in their OWN country, causing collatoral damage.

His last remark was: " If the enemy wants war, we cant stop it, but at the very least make him fight that war in his own country and not devastate ours".
It is offcourse a little different now, since in those days .. the civilians made up the army, so there were very little innocents.

But the same still more or less applies. We shouldnt wait for Saddam to make the first move. Though I understand that waging war in Iraq means killing innocents too .. reality usually doesnt work out perfectly.

War should offcourse be the last option, because either way there'll be innocent casualties. But simply saying -no- is the be blind and deaf.

[Piestrider]

Originally posted by Zoltan: answer this. usa will attack iraq for oil and own benefits. am I wrong? please answer this question. The whole world knows the answer! Say NO to war!

No... the US will attack Iraq because they have violated every single resolution that the UN has passed without consequences. They have already had their last chance (not to mention their last last chance) and now it is time for them to face the consequences that the UN has been boasting this whole time. Strangely enough, however, it is not the UN that is enforcing its own resolutions. It's the US acting against the UN's advice. Funny how that works isn't it?

[johnny]

Originally posted by Zoltan: answer this. usa will attack iraq for oil and own benefits. am I wrong? please answer this question. The whole world knows the answer! Say NO to war!

No, they do it to free this planet from a potential new "Hitler".

I'm also against war, but not in this case. He won't go away by himself, so someone has to MAKE him go away.