Tony Blair's Speech to Parliament on the Case For War without the UN
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This morning I was up at 3:30 AM to drive to the airport. On the way to the airport I listened to England's Priminister Tony Blair speak to parliament on the case for war against Iraq without UN support. I confess that although I have consistently been opposed to war against Iraq I found Blair's speech quite compelling. He presented a clear history since 1993 on Saddam's behavior. I am not sure I would support war yet and I believe that still more diplomacy could take place but I was somewhat convinced that France's blanket refusal to give Saddam an ultimatum was not a good thing and resulted in virtually eliminating any motivation for Saddam to act according the the UN resolution 1448 (or some such).
While I am about it I might as well mention that George Bush's ultimatum yesterday for Saddam to leave Iraq was strategic especially his approach in targeting the Iraq military to abandon their loyalty to Saddam. Very cunning I would say.
Several things still concern me, however.
- There seems to be a glaring inconsistency between our treatment of Iraq and our treatment of North Korea. The latter seems to be even more of a concern.
- As with the war against Afghanistan, America seems to be a ginormous bully.
- I am aware of the atrocities that Iraq has committed in the past and yet still it seems hypocritical for us to object to their possession of weapons of mass destruction when we many other countries have them. I understand those who can't be responsible with weapons revoke the right to have them but still there is a twinge of comfortableness with the we-can-but-you-can't attitude. Interestingly enough I support strong gun control within the US and some could argue that we are applying strict "gun control" against Iraq. :)
- Regardless of the nobleness of the war innocent people will be killed.
- I have been extremely disillusioned by the election of George Bush and I strongly oppose his international policies in general (i. Not signing the Kyoto agreement on the environment, ii. His bias toward Israel over the human right violations that Israel commits against the Palestinians, iii. Even much of the war effort against Afghanistan.) I question how much of the Iraq situation is motivated by political gain?
- I strongly believe that God takes a much more global (universe) perspective than the (dare I say) selfish and often uninformed perspective taken by America.
Well... that's all on this issue for now. I took a break from writing this and during the break my mind has wondered on to matters of software architecture that have distracted me from completely documenting my thoughts on the issue of war on Iraq. Anyway, I expect this will solicit enough criticism for the week (if anyone was actually reading this that is).
5:44:18 AM
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