[Vision2020] A response to John D's Troll on Iraq

[Phil Nisbet]

John D

Please, the listserv here has a rule that you are supposed to actually tell 
us who you are.  It is not an anonomus list and posting in the anon mode is 
trolling, which is why I called you a troll, not to disparage your remarks.

You write;

“  The point of my list of dictators was that the argument for invading  
Iraq that Sadam was a 'mean guy' doesn't work in light of all the other  
mean guys that remain undisturbed.”

Saddam was not simply a mean guy, he was a genocidal dictator who carried 
out the ethnic cleansing of his nation of its complete Jewish Community, 
targeted his Kurdish population for mass murder, used WMD’s in Kurds and 
Iranians.  He was a member of the Sunni minority of his country and 
oppressed, tortured and denied human rights to both Kurdish minority and 
Shia majority populations of Iraq, which is the equivalent of Apartheid 
actions of White South Africa.

Of the people on your list, which of them had ordered the killing of in 
excess of half a million people?

I would grant you that it would be nice if the UN was able and willing to 
take action to stop genocide, but all you have to do is look at Rwanda to 
realize that it not only does not take action, it backs away from action.  
If you need further confirmation of that, read up on UN action in Bosnia.

You might want to remember that the UN includes in its membership every one 
of the dictators you list.  So how do we get a group that includes a raft of 
repressive regimes to oust a dictator and what sort of a nation are they 
going to support putting in place in any nation building exercise?

For the less murderous regimes that are on your list, Nick Gier is correct, 
containment and economic sanctions are the best we can afford and hope for.  
And yes, we have allowed genocide to occur in the past and turned a blind 
eye to it, but its time for us to stop doing so.  This is in reality not the 
Bush Doctrine, it’s the Clinton Kosovo Doctrine and it’s a shame that we do 
not seem able to unite behind its application.

Phil Nisbet

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