OT: self-quotes

[Jay Boshara]

While I normally think that way-off-topic posts do not belong on this list,
on this issue I must break with my own standards because it is of such vital
importance, and because too many Americans seem willing to follow our
president into an unjust war.

I agree with nearly everything said in the previous posts that lambasted the
Bush administration's greedy martial motivations, but I have a further
point.  Iraq started the last Gulf War by invading Kuwait, so they indeed
deserved the resulting invasion.  However, they have done nothing to invite
the current hostilities.  I served as an Air National Guard intelligence
officer in the last Gulf War, and I had to drop out of graduate school for
two semesters to do so.  This was enormously inconvenient and had adverse
effects on my career plan, but I was glad to do it for the following reasons
(in order of importance):
1) Unprovoked aggression like the invasion of Kuwait could not be allowed to
stand;
2) We had longstanding commitments to protect Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (and
even Israel);
3) We had to prove that collective security works, if only to dissuade those
who would test our will and ability to put politics aside to come to each
others' aid;
4) Because of Hussein's unpredictability and thuggishness, we could not
allow Iraq to control so much of the region's oil resources.

But the current drive to war is based on no such imperatives: There is no
unprovoked aggression from Iraq; our allies are not in danger; the concept
of collective security has been proven and is not threatened by Iraq; and
our oil supply is safe.  If we want improved energy security we should
overcome our own stupidity, shortsightedness and greed and invest in
research to develop alternative energy and low-consumption technologies --
NOT try to grab up the oilfields of other nations (however inappropriately
they use their petrodollars).

As a former intelligence officer whose job it was to evaluate the military
potential of near east nations, as a geographer who has lived near the Iraqi
border in southeastern Turkey and studied Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq for
nine years, and as a professor of political science whose research deals
with the multilateral relations of these countries, please believe me (or at
least consider it) when I say this: IRAQ IS NOT CURRENTLY A THREAT TO US,
ITS NEIGHBORS OR OUR OIL SUPPLY, AND THEY ARE NOT IN LEAGUE WITH AL QUAEDA.
The notion that Iraq still possesses and is continuing to develop weapons of
mass destruction TO A DEGREE THAT WOULD THREATEN OTHER NATIONS is ludicrous
-- our president is simply using this as a false justification to grab
Iraq's oilfields and divert attention from a recession that is remarkably
similar to the one that deprived his father of a second term.  And, he is
trying to redeem his father's "failed" foreign policy (though I still think
it was wise of him to stop the invasion before we got involved in an urban
war in Baghdad).  Please consider this as well: To question our leaders'
actions or motivations is NOT unpatriotic.  In fact, it is our right and
duty, and it is part of what makes America so great.

Jay Boshara.



On 1/30/03 7:19 PM, "iBook List" <ibook at lists.themacintoshguy.com> wrote:

> Message-Id: <v03110701ba3d154458d5@[192.168.1.100]>
> Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 17:06:14 -0600
> From: John Paul Moore <JohnPaulMoore at austin.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [P1] self-quotes
> 
> At 1:54 PM -0600 1/4/03, Eric B. Richardson wrote:
> 
> What I objected to has to do with the term 'chicken hawk' which is
> long term standing slang for a pedophile that is decades old at
> least. The people who appropriated this term for this debate are
> aware of that meaning, and by doing so, implicating our national
> leaders with such connotations, is shameful and reprehensible
> behavior. I did not object to the criticism. If I did, it would be
> along the lines like this:
> 
> These are public figures we are referring to here--among the chickenhawks
> are George Bush, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, John Ashcroft, Paul Wolfowitz,
> Richard Perle, Spencer Abraham, .........