From: donald@sq.sq.com (Donald Teed)
Subject: Re: What will dropping more bombs on Iraq accomplish?
Organization: SoftQuad Inc.
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 15:52:22 GMT

DT = >>
PP = >

ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu writes:

>> I have not advocated anything other than everything else that
>> hasn't been tried.  You are leaping to a narrow minded conclusion.
>> 
>What you advocated would have fact have palyed right into SH's
>hands & was precisely the sort of response he anticipated.

Have I?  Please explain what I have said that would "play right into
his hands".  I have no interest in helping this man continue his
present course of rule over Iraq.  I am interested in seeing new
ideas explored other than the already tryed and unsucessful use
of military force and munitions.  There is nothing I can do in
the role of Joe Citizen to even have the information let alone the
ability to carry out measures to limit the military capabilities
of Hussein.  Please come up with a response that doesn't group my
views in with those of pacifists.

>You proposal that SH could be 'talked' out of Kuwait would have
>been both ineffective & the same thing as doing nothing since
>it would have accomplished nothing.

You are imagining things again - I never stated anything about 
'talking' him out of Kuwait.

>> Politics does not equal military force.  To a whole segment of
>> this society this concept is not tenable.  Until we get over it
>> we are doomed to repeat these types of activities until someday
>> it doesn't work out so cleanly and half of the earth is poisoned.
>> Besides the immediate terrible results, that is what is being risked
>> by the type of action being exercised.
>Sometimes military force is necessary. It was unavoidable in this case.
>A much larger segment of this society subscribes to that belief. Until
>you get over the idea that negotiations could've achieved in light of
>SH's intransigence you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. It would've
>been more terrible to sit around whiling away the months & years negotiat-
>ing endlessly which is what your strategy would've produced.

OK for the bonus question.  Phil, for 6000 points name a type of political
action other than military force and negotiations.

Bzzzzzzzzz.

Times up Phil, you lose.  There were many possible answers, including
embargo, economic sanction, blockades, seeking the cooperation of
neighbor states and ensuring a balanced effect on their economies,
offering assistance to states whose trade is dependant on ties with 
the country concerned.

Of course it helps to have a starting ground of being
recognized as a force with great credibility and
a neutral interest in the affairs of the region concerned.  The
efforts of the U.N. sanctions were not sucessful because of this.
The states putting the most effort into enforcing sanctions
were ones (such as Canada and the U.S.) who were outsiders to
the region.  The reasons why states such as Jordan did not
cooperate must be explored to see why the sanctions could not
cause Hussein to change his tune.  It is time to stop explaining
and start seeking an understanding.  These places in the world have
their interests just as the Western nations have theirs.  A policy
that might is right is very short sighted and just affirms
a philosophy that "the bully on the block deserves to rule".
Modern thinking has gone beyond this morality, since the
French revolution or so.  Modern Statesmanship advanced beyond
the medieval concept of state=army sometime after the Second World War,
when the atomic and nuclear weapons made the whole thing impossible
to continue on a full scale level.  A number of governments
have changed in this world because of U.S. foreign policy, and most
of them did not involve an invasion.  The State Department is
well aware of a host of methods which can be used to alter
the politics of a region.  Many of their methods are less than
honorable before you include the military option.  But given the
two evils, perhaps one could argue for their use as being the lesser,
except that one should also take into account the message
being sent to all nations as the dirty parts of history
are uncovered.

--Donald Teed