I don't 8understand the trust that you give to dictators that kill their OWN people, live in palaces while a block away they let their people starve. .
"Cheesey" wrote:
Who said anything about trust? I don't trust any of the foul-mouthed, close-minded, tobacco-chewing rednecks that carry guns around here, but that doesn't mean I don't think they should have a right to do so. If one of them ever tried to lay a hand on my sisters or wife or sons, though, I'd put a bullet in him and not blink. But until that happens, they can carry around all the hardware they want and it's not going to bother me a bit. I'll just find it a little amusing that they feel such an overpowering need to compensate.
By the way, Saddam Hussein is rumored to have killed between 35,000 and 50,000 people in his 35-year reign. That's a lot of people to be sure. However, the UN sanctions imposed on Iraq at United States' insistence are estimated to have starved over half a million children alone! (Did you know that prior to the imposition of sanctions, the number-one epidemiological problem in Iraq was childhood obesity? Now it's malnutrition.) Moreover, estimates range anywhere from 100,000 to over a million civilians killed in this war since the United States invaded. There has been a massive brain drain in Iraq of the very people needed to rebuild that country: doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers, chemists, biologists, physicists, and computer scientists. When I was a medic at one of the military-run prisons in Iraq, I was continually amazed at how great a proportion of my prisoners were intelligentsia -- people educated in the United States, England, and Europe. This war has devastated the ranks of the educated.
So who is the greater butcher?
And who cares if you don't trust these little nations anyway?
They're little nations. What threat do they actually pose to us? They're like mosquitoes buzzing around your face. Sure, it sucks when they bite, but it's not going to kill you. None of these nations represent any sort of serious threat to us, and if living conditions there are so intolerable, the people of those nations should rise up and overthrow their governments, just as our people did during the War for Independence. If they are too lazy to do that, it stands to reason they're not all that dissatisfied with their lives.
I'm far more concerned about the potential threats posed by China and Russia, who have been climbing into bed for the better part of a decade, than any of the assorted little 'stans out there who foam and froth at the mouth every time they want a few extra concessions at the bargaining table.