Was watching The National last night...
PostPosted:Sun Mar 23, 2003 12:05 am
<div style='font: bold 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>...for those that don't know it's kind of the Canadian equivalent of Nightline...anyway, they had a very good piece on last night about the Iraqi refugees in the US from the first war. A community of about 20,000 Iraqi refugees live in Dearborn, Michigan. They interviewed many of them and the vast majority are in favor of the war. Their hatred of Saddam runs so deep, what they did to Mussolini would be tame compared to what would happen to Saddam if they got a hold of him...they want this war to see Saddam toppled so they can go back home or bring the rest of their families to the US.
...at the same time, they have a deep mistrust of the President. Why, you ask? Because of what George Bush Sr. did to them...he abandoned them after the first war. He convinced them to rise up and oppose Saddam and they did. Then he didn't finish the job, he left Saddam in power and left them to flee to refugee camps and eventually make their way here, leaving their homes because staying meant certain death. They fear the way this war might end because the son may repeat the sins of the father...
...nothing could convince me that this war isn't neccessary (screw right or wrong, and screw the U.N.) and that the U.S. needs to fight it and destroy Saddam's regime...we owe it to these people to make up for the sins of 12 years ago...we owe it to them and to their families still in Iraq that we left to rot...for 12 years, we sat by and let the U.N. try to use sanctions to break Saddam which only served to line his coffers and destroy the Iraqi people, we bombed the shit out of Baghdad in 98 when they threw out inspectors because we had another weak president that was happy to ignore the root of the problem and just use enough force to make Saddam back off slightly and only hurt the Iraqi people more...then more sanctions and more useless inspections that solve nothing...
...now we're there again and...I'm an atheist but if there is something out there I'm hoping it finally guides us to doing the right thing...that the son isn't the father and finishes this...there is no pride in this war, no heroism or nobility...it is only the beginning of amending the wrongs we have done to these people...I don't care if that's not how my government sees it, it's how I see it...it's how they see it...I can only hope it gets done right, but hope is something worth fighting for...it's a helluva lot better than sticking your head in the sand like the whole world has done for over a decade...no ticker tape parade, no triumphant march over a weakened enemy, just a long overdue apology...</div>
...at the same time, they have a deep mistrust of the President. Why, you ask? Because of what George Bush Sr. did to them...he abandoned them after the first war. He convinced them to rise up and oppose Saddam and they did. Then he didn't finish the job, he left Saddam in power and left them to flee to refugee camps and eventually make their way here, leaving their homes because staying meant certain death. They fear the way this war might end because the son may repeat the sins of the father...
...nothing could convince me that this war isn't neccessary (screw right or wrong, and screw the U.N.) and that the U.S. needs to fight it and destroy Saddam's regime...we owe it to these people to make up for the sins of 12 years ago...we owe it to them and to their families still in Iraq that we left to rot...for 12 years, we sat by and let the U.N. try to use sanctions to break Saddam which only served to line his coffers and destroy the Iraqi people, we bombed the shit out of Baghdad in 98 when they threw out inspectors because we had another weak president that was happy to ignore the root of the problem and just use enough force to make Saddam back off slightly and only hurt the Iraqi people more...then more sanctions and more useless inspections that solve nothing...
...now we're there again and...I'm an atheist but if there is something out there I'm hoping it finally guides us to doing the right thing...that the son isn't the father and finishes this...there is no pride in this war, no heroism or nobility...it is only the beginning of amending the wrongs we have done to these people...I don't care if that's not how my government sees it, it's how I see it...it's how they see it...I can only hope it gets done right, but hope is something worth fighting for...it's a helluva lot better than sticking your head in the sand like the whole world has done for over a decade...no ticker tape parade, no triumphant march over a weakened enemy, just a long overdue apology...</div>