One year later...

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by Oz Referee
The war with Iraq - is it fair to kill thousands of innocent civilans for the actions of their government/military. I wholeheartedly support action against terrorists and the governments that support terrorism.

Quite frankly, yes.

First off, the only reason there would be immense civilian casualty is because Hussein is known to use his own citizens as shields - any ethical responsibility is on him in that case.

Second, any loss of life is far outweighed by the death toll were Iraq to actually use a WMD. If we do not act and then get attacked by Iraq, everyone will be complaining that the U.S. should have done something.

Finally, the question from many people in Australia (an other nations outside of the US) is "Who made the US the policeman for the world?"

Everyone else in the world did by sitting back and refusing to act on things. To paraphrase Madeline Albright, we seem to be the only ones in the world with any cojones left.

Why does the US constantly preach the wonders of democracy, yet at the same time refuse to listen to the decisions handed down by the UN?

To put it simply, what the United Nations says means diddly-squat. They have no authority over the United States (a soverign nation) unless we concede authority to them. It's like the student government at my school - the students (UN) can suggest and critique all they want, but the administration (US) doesn't have to listen to an ounce of it.


That's it for me on this subject - I prefer basketball so much more

BTW, if I ever start discussing the relativity of morality, STOP ME!!!