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Conclusion: The World We Want

Thank you for participating in the Dialogue on Foreign Policy. The interactive web site is now closed. The Minister's report will appear on this web site once it is released.

This Forum is bilingual, and participants post messages in their language of choice.

The World We Want

Contributor: craigmui

Date: 2003-01-23 05:08:11


In the many discussions I have reviewed and participated in regarding recent world events there is one very important perspective that we must all be aware of. How can you successfully engage in any negotiations without representing a strong and crediable position?

In regards to the situation in Iraq please take a moment and think for one second just how successful UN inspection teams would be in the US and UK were not massing armed forced outside of Iraq's borders. In fact you don't even have to use your imagination, just review the past 10 years and see the results. It is clear that unless the regime in Iraq feels threatened it will not respond in a positive manner. UN weapons inspectors were kicked out years ago and no action resulted so why now (without the threat of force) would Saddam simply change his mind and decide to actively engage with the UN on this issue. Clearly sanctions were not working so the next step is to threaten force.

The US has the very unenviable position of being the worlds only superpower. And as a result it falls to them to play the role of "bad cop" all the time so the "good cop" (the UN) can get the suspect (Iraq) to come clean. If the US was not beating the war drums does anyone really believe that Saddam would have let weapons inspectors back in?

We should all thank the US and it's taxpaying citizens for the commitment to PEACE they are making by flexing their muscle on this issue. Dismissing US foreign policy as "global bullying" is as shortsighted and self serving as it is just plain wrong.

Here is a link to an official Iraqi government information site http://www.uruklink.net/eindex.htm. Give it a read and you'll see that Iraq does not represent the truth in most everything they report.

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The World We Want

Contributor: marl

Date: 2003-01-25 10:13:59


If you check the record, the U.N. inspectors were not "kicked out" of Iraq in 1998, as you stated. They left because the U.S. and Britain were about to begin their bombing campaign. The media does such a good job in propandizing U.S. foreign policy that, unless you watch events closely, you are left with these false perceptions of what took place.

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