Comments | tongodeon: 5 Years in Iraq

tongodeon

5 Years in Iraq

Mar 20, 2008 16:01

Back in November 2005 I wrote about the importance of judging events in midstream "before all the facts are in ... while there's still a chance to influence the outcome." History is continuous making it difficult to know when we finally out of the stream and ready for final historical judgement, but anniversaries are a good occasion for a ( Read more... )

iraqpoint, iraq, politics

Comments 7

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flwyd March 21 2008, 02:19:29 UTC

Accountable in that everyone knows how to blame, perhaps? Accountable in a way to the international community who levied sanctions.

He was tried and put to death, which is an extreme form of accounting...

tongodeon March 21 2008, 07:31:16 UTC

flwyd has it right. When Saddam was running the show and someone got tortured in Iraq we knew who did it. When the Kurds got gassed we knew who did it. When thousands of Shia and Kurds were massacred in Basra and Nasiriyah we knew who did it. When those little remote controlled airplanes were uncovered we knew who made them.

And because we knew who was doing it, we could hold them accountable. He was responsible and answerable for the actions of his government. We passed UN resolutions. We bombed targets. We staged trade blockades. And as you're proud to point out we invaded his country, decapitated his regime, killed his sons, dug him out of his "spider hole", put him on trial, and executed him. He was accountable. He was held to account for his misdeeds. And it wasn't just Saddam; we knew who the whole chain of command was. We know everything from the officers present in Halabja during the poison gas attack to the companies that sold Saddam the chemical precursors because of Iraqi accountability ( ... )

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Thread 8

isn't this a bit premature? drieuxster March 21 2008, 21:56:59 UTC

Clearly we are no where near the mid point in the SurgeTasticalism.

May I recommend Chris Hedge's new book, "I do not believe in Atheists", since we may well have a whole lot more time to work on this part of the whole whatEverOnWhomEver.

So, why should actual americans worry as long as the government is still able to con someone to keep on going over there to be the targets who get handed up to the 'terrorists' while the decent folks stay home and make things like Bear Sterns the marvels of the free market system that won the cold war, and is every day winning the current whatever.,..