Whose we?

Govt do what THEY do... in our names. Even those of us who didnt vote for them. Cowardice makes for sound politicking.

War?

What war?

Ed Coper is absolutely correct, war is just awful and Western people must never engage in war.

It would have been much better to allow Saddam Hussein to keep Kuwait, thereby solving his financial problems and giving him squillions more to spend on armaments and making war on his neighbours. With the west in appeasment mode, he would have had no trouble grabbing Saudi Arabia and then, with 70% of the worlds proven oil, he could realy hold a gun at the head of the West. So, what's wrong with that?

It was proven in 1939 that appeasing dictators is the best way to prevent war.

As for Afghanistan, the west should never have intervened. The Taliban was a wise and forward thinking political/religious organisation which was only concerned with the human rights of its citizens. It was also concerned with protecting cultural treasures such as the Babiyan Buddhas, which everybody knows the Jews blew up.

If the Taliban allowed Al Qaida to use Afghanistan as a base to launch terrorist attacks on the west, well, that's their right, isn't it? We have no right to tell the Taliban what to do. The sooner NATO pulls out of Afghanistan and allows Al Qaida to go about their business unmolested, the better.

Right On Ed. Peace, Love, and Mung Beans, brother.

The poster 'Redneck' pretends to care about ancient treasures with his/her weak irony:

"The Taliban was a wise and forward thinking political/religious organisation which was only concerned with the human rights of its citizens. It was also concerned with protecting cultural treasures such as the Babiyan Buddhas, which everybody knows the Jews blew up."

The destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan (or 'bamiyaan') that the poster 'Redneck' refers to pales into insignificance compared to the wholesale looting of Baghdad's museums, galleries and libraries following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

'Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told Reuters: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars." and:

"The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0412-01.htm

'Baghdad's museums, galleries and libraries are empty shells, destroyed in a wave of looting that erupted as U.S.-led forces ended Saddam Hussein's rule last week, although antiquities experts have said they were given assurances months ago from U.S. military planners that Iraq's historic artifacts and sites would be protected by occupying forces.' and:

'The Iraqi National Museum held rare artifacts documenting the development of mankind in ancient Mesopotamia, one of the world's earliest civilizations. Among the museum collection were more than 80,000 cuneiform tablets, some of which had yet to be translated.'

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0417-14.htm

So much for 'cultural liberation'.

History Buff, no, History Buffoon more like it. As for Redneck at least he is honest and is willing to be judged as a superior white person of high education, as per this example from a previous post about his racist views;

"As such, most of them start on the botom rung and stay there, creating ethnic ghettoes noted for their high levels of welfare dependency and serious crime."

Well I would certainly believe anything these two gentlemen of letters wrote than any of that psuedo academic stuff that gets published in the mainstream media.

My marble went into the barrel for Vietnam but being advised by phone that it was withdrawn because I was married and with a pregnant wife was a great relief to me because i was afraid I would be shot in Vietnam by an American!

Ulysses

I can't work this out.

Why is it totally unacceptable for the west to invade a brutal dictator, who practiced aparthied all the while he murdered his own citizens, yet it was Bob Brown and his ilk (who are utterly against the Iraq war) demanding troops into East Timor (to remove the brutal Indonesians), the Solomon Islands (where the race riots occurred last year - with Chinese businesses attacked, as usual) and West Papua!

Why ok there but not elsewhere?

East Timor is falling apart yet no one is blaming Australia for that like they blame us for Iraq. Why not? Is it alright to help native peoples but not Arabs?

And to the joker who pointed out that winning is Haliburton, yes, you're right! When huge, greedy, multinational (yes that isn't US only, but world...you know...China? Or does the world simply consist of white man for you?) companies flock to warzones, people get jobs, ideas are transferred, economies improve, living standards improve.

THIS PROCEDURE HAS HAPPENED EVERYWHERE THE US AND THE WEST HAS BEEN ABLE TO IMPLEMENT IT UNIMPEDED.

It only didn't work in Vietnam because racist middle-class whites in the west didn't want yellow people to live like white people (i.e. the western left. Just as they act towards genuine humanitarian heroes like Ayaan Hirsi Ali - who tells the truth about Islam as it's practiced in most of the world today, as a lepor; a darling of the right - think about how immoral that is! She is a victim of Islam, yet noone but the 'right' seems to care? The right does what the left thinks it stands for!).

Now in Vietnam, another communist dump, people live poorly. Japan, Germany and South Korea (could there ever be a better example of what "Americanising your economy" means than North and South Korea?!) on the other hand, all show that where the west goes, prosperity and happiness follows.........

"Reckon the main reason we haven't heard much, History Buff, is that such news from Iraq would be really hard to fathom during an election."

Yep - they certainly wouldn't want people to see this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aiRugtbQGA8