Originally posted by Viper52:
I am not a Saddam-lover, the man is in my mind like Hitler, the worst incarnation of mankind. But look at the US attempts to justify war, other than the fact that Saddam is a madman who must be stopped, what have they offered? Nothing but feeble excuses, half-truths and worst of all, moral bleating. This coming from a country who has a record of forgoing morals to meet its self-interests in the past 60-odd years. What does it make them? IMO [b]Hypocrites[/b]
Sorry, but I certainly would beg to differ from your posted views concerning "half truths, feeble excuses, moral bleating".
The WMD program pursued by Saddam was exposed and confirmed by his own Sons-in-Law, when both of them fled Iraq, only to be enticed back to Iraq for a short reunion with Saddam's daughters before being executed for betraying Saddam's secrets.
On Monday, in Manila, one of Saddam's primary engineer, who worked on the WMD program, confirmed the existence of such attempts by Saddam, in a pre-planned game of "Hide-and-YOU-Seek-if-YOU-can".
Reading the manner in which Saddam has responded to the UN Security Council, it is very obvious that he will hold out to the last minute, just to see what the Inspectors will report and what the UN Security Council will demand. Saddam will then TAILOR his response to pacify those concerns which is demanded by the Security Council, while he continue to have the latitude of time to hide his WMD for another day.
He plays his cards close to his chest, responding to the gambit by carefully watching what the other side intends to do, nullify it with adequate response, buy time to save his pet projects, and at the same time try to take the sting out of any aggressive actions from the USA by playing to the world's opinion and sympathy.
Quote:
"This coming from a country who has a record of forgoing morals to meet its self-interests in the past 60-odd years."This is quite a sweeping and forceful statement, which I can only wonder what could have caused you to bear such a burden of opinion against the USA.
In the world of politics, are there any morals involve, even when viewed in our local Singapore political scene ?
Against the historical backdrop of the Cold War rivalry between US Capitalist and Russian Communist systems, both sides have resorted to unscrupulous means to gain footholds in the world's communities across all continents.
It is just our good fortune that the "immoral" and "unscrupulous" policies of US Capitalism won the day.
If the USA did not prevail against the odds stacked against them from World Opinions during the various periods of crisis, we would have been dominated by the Russian Communists model that swept almost half of Europe, and taking the biggest cut from Asia in China, North Korea, and Vietnam (the last two are still bogged down in Communist style economy, while China has embraced Capitalism).
Hypocrisy ?
It is a trademark and a common feature of politicians.
Let us not be naive in this competitive world.
Let us be street smart and know which side of the street to walk, just to avoid getting into any troubles.