4.0929 War and Protest (2/54)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 23 Jan 91 17:37:45 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0929. Wednesday, 23 Jan 1991.
(1) Date: Wed, 23 Jan 91 14:32 EST (17 lines)
From: Alexander A. DiLella <DILELLA@CUA>
Subject: RE: 4.0919 ...On War, Protest, and News from Israel
(2) Date: Wed, 23 Jan 91 10:15:30 MDT (37 lines)
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 4.0919 ... On War, Protest, and News from Israel
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 91 14:32 EST
From: Alexander A. DiLella <DILELLA@CUA>
Subject: RE: 4.0919 ...On War, Protest, and News from Israel
Patrick O'Donnell has hit the nail on the head. I pray that the govern-
ments that engaged in the sale of arms to Iraq will learn what they have
created in Saddam Hussein. As enlightened citizens of our respective
coun- tries, we should inform our governments that we will tolerate no
longer this immoral, but unfortunately profitable, sale of weapons to
countries that can ill afford them in the first place. Imagine if the
billions spent on arms were to be used for self-help programs and other
types of assistance to 3rd world countries! The sale of modern weaponry
to the various adversaries in the middle east must stop. Only then will
the countries involved come to see negotiation and diplomacy as the best
means of solving disputes and righting wrongs.
Alexander A. Di Lella
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------46----
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 91 10:15:30 MDT
From: DUSKNOX@IDBSU
Subject: Re: 4.0919 ...On War, Protest, and News from Israel
Many people have voiced the opinion that war is not the way to solve
the problems in the Middle East. This opinion baffles me. Implicit in
this argument is that WE control events there. This position argues as
if peace and war were wholly in the hands, not just of the UN, but of
the United States specifically. Do people honestly think that if we
refrained from war now that war would never come? The refrain to
"give peace a chance" must be directed to BOTH sides.
I see in the West many people horrified by the war and deeply critical
of their governments' policies. Where are such people in Iraq? Where
are the demonstrators, the critics? Why is the Iraqi decision to go to
war historically and politically understandable, even tolerable, and
yet the Western decision to fight reprehensible and bloodthirsty?
Yes, we certainly have painted ourselves into a corner, but Hussein
has his own paintbrush. What we have had to do was to try to maintain
political balance in a part of the world driven not by politics but
by religion. It is hardly surprising that we have miscalculated.
But I insist that all of that is quite beside the point. All the
evidence is that Hussein is a man who has made up his mind to have
war; a man who does not blanch at the prospect of ruining his people
to satisfy his own agenda. One can perhaps buy time, forestall, and
even win small political victories. But sooner or later Hussein was
determined to take on the world. Do you think he built those bomb
shelters to protect him from the Iranian air force? Not hardly.
War will bring only suffering and disruption and political chaos.
Tell it to Saddam.
Ellis 'Skip' Knox, Ph.D.
Historian, Data Center Associate
Boise State University DUSKNOX@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU