In a strongly worded editorial the Washington Post is suggesting sanctions be imposed upon Syria.
The Security Council has a good precedent to follow here. When Western investigators linked the Libyan government to the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Scotland, the United Nations applied sanctions to the regime of Moammar Gaddafi and kept them in place until his government accepted responsibility for the crime and surrendered two of its authors for trial. The United Nations should demand no less in this case. The Syrian sponsors of Mr. Hariri’s murder must be identified and brought to justice; if that includes Mr. Assad and his relatives, so be it.
It is extremely frustrating and quite ironic that in the Arab world it is mostly the helpless citizens who pay the price for the actions of dictators and their cronies. The Iraqis paid the price for Saddam’s arrogance, enduring years of sanctions. Now it seems the Syrians will be next.
It is the weekend here and I can’t seem to relax. The repercussions of the Mehlis report could engulf the whole Middle East. If unrest starts in Syria, it might start a domino effect through neighboring countries. I’m worried. Anyway, I leave you with some more reactions from Syrian bloggers:
Read the latest and final UN inquiry to the “oil-for-food” scandal …
You might find it interesting.
‘Yhe “UN” imposed the sanctions not the US/UK.’
But everytime member states attempted to stop the sanctions, when the studied showed how they were affecting children, the US and UK vetoed the moves, effectively extending the life of the sanctions to about a decade and causing the murder of over halfa million Iraqi babies.
Tom:
“My logic says, if the US wanted the oil so badly, it could have simply taken it as spoils of war.”
Wrong, the resistance you are facing today would have been 10 times as harsh if you just walked in and too over the oil fields. Now, you are dealing with the Sunnis and your death toll is 2000. Had you took over the oil, the Kurds and the She’ites would have fought you just as hard. YOur casualties would have increased exponentially, and you would not have been able to protect the oil installations. The situation would have been far worse than Vietnam and there is nothing you could have done to keep Iraq as a useful oil cow. So you divided the Iraqis and played one group against another, just like the British did in their colonies.
” Husayn was murdering his captives. Kuwait and the US had a treaty. The US under George H. Bush, as a major part of a Coalition including other Arab states, conquered Husayn, winning Kuwait.”
According the UN, the US/UK sanctionns on Iraq resulted in the deathes of over 500,000 Iraqi children due to lack of basic medications and water sanitation systems. In all of the studies, Saddam’s kill rate did not even come close to yours. This makes you a far greater eveil to the people of Iraq and the region than Saddam. Numbers don’t lie. Also, according to VERY conservative US estimates, over 30,000 Iraqi civilians have been murdered as the result of the US/UK invasion. Other more impartial sources estimate the civilian Iraqi death toll around 100,000. God lord. And you are trying to sell me on how heroic US actions are.
“Husayn, a terrorist, conquered Kuwait.”
And what were you doing in Granada? Panama? Vietnam? and Iraq. Killing poeple whoes natural resources you covet and others who do not agree with your values is not a nice thing to do. Don’t forget that most of your southern states were annexed by force. You are no better.
“The Coalition intent was to prevent further Muslim Extremist Arab Terrorists from again attacking Coalition nations including the US”
Bogus. The US attacked Iraq using WMD as in excuse. There were none. US used Al-qaeda links to Saddam as another excuse. There were no such links. Now, when all the excuses turned out to be lies, now the US tells us they killed over three quarter million Iraqis, from sanctiosn to invasion, to save the Iraqis from Saddam.
As for the Muslim Extremist Arab Terrorists, may I remind you that Iraq never had this phenomen of suicide attacks before the US invasion. Had Saddam been so evil, how come the same Iraqis who are killing themselvs in suicide attacks did not go after Saddam and his regiem? I will tell you why,. because the US/UK soldiers have proven to be far more brutal and far more inhumane than Saddam. Abu-Gharib was just the tip of the ice berg. The reports of US/UK soldier brutality to civilians are unparalleled to anything we have heared during Saddam’s regin. The US invasion and the casusl murder of innocents by the US/UK forces has hardened the most moderate of people in the region. We never heard of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Heck I have known friends who used to love anything even remotly related to the US. Today, these guys are no fans of anything remotly associated with Bush.
“The tremendous majority of people in any nation are nice people who want life, liberty, and the freedom to pursue happines”
Please stop throwing such empty slogans around when your actions contradict your words. At least stand up and say that you are cold blooded murderes. No shame in admitting who you are. Just spare us the BS about your empty rhetoric. More people died in the name of your democracy than by their own dictators. Forget Panams? Forgot the Freedom Fighters in Nicuragua, Forget the Khmer Rougem, and the array of butchers you have trainied and funded for decades to topple democracies or communist regimes. Forgot the overthrow of Irans democracy and the instllation of Shah, forgot how you couzy up to the Saudis, who are the most repressive regieme in the middle east. But the most damning act of hypocracy is your unconditional support to Israel, even as you threaten force against Iran and Syria.
I accidentally erred and hit the post button before the preview button in my last post. Please disregard that last post. This is the finished product, I hope! Sorry everyone.
This is just a point and is not directed at any person.
My logic says, if the US wanted the oil so badly, it could have simply taken it as spoils of war. Husayn, a terrorist, conquered Kuwait. Husayn was murdering his captives. Kuwait and the US had a treaty. The US under George H. Bush, as a major part of a Coalition including other Arab states, conquered Husayn, winning Kuwait. Yet the US left the land and the oil to Kuwait.
A huge gang of terrorists conquered Iraq and took its oil, its people, everything, murdering captives. The US under George W. Bush, as a major part of a Coalition including other Arab states, conquered the terrorists and gave the land and oil back to Iraq, gave the people their freedom, gave Iraq back to Iraqis, and is helping them get on their own feet.
So, how does anyone say the US wanted the oil? All the Coalition did was free the people, and the oil.
The Coalition intent was to prevent further Muslim Extremist Arab Terrorists from again attacking Coalition nations including the US, its allies, and other Muslims and Arabs, even those who hate the US, for some reason I don’t understand. Terrorists hate freedom and hate Muslims who don’t believe as they do. They simply hate and are liars and murderers.
Saddam and others definitely had WMDs because he and his cronies used chemical, ordnance, and biological weapons against Kurds and Iran, against innocent men, women, children. He murdered Iraqis who didn’t look at him the way he wanted them to. No one seems to complain that these murderous regimes have been almost completely stopped!
A by-product of this war protects the US infrastructures need for oil. The US BUYS it. The US could very well have simply taken it because the US earned that right. That was not the original intent of the Us. Its intent was to prevent a clear and present danger to the US from culminating – again!
The People of the US (and many others including peaceloving Muslim Arabs) almost unanimously support this War on Terrorism and freeing Afghanis, Iraqis, and others from the grip of terrorist murdering scumbags, on the US’s own nickel. Or did I miss something? Clear it up any?
Thank you Natasha, for voicing your opinions, for using your freedom. I’m proud of you! Writing as you do proves you like freedom, what the Coalition, especially the US, has done for Middle East nations. Your home country now has more freedom because the bad guy next door is gone. You can say what you want to, even at home. Protect your freedom; it’s a most precious gift from God. We will continue to help protect it in the Middle East, with the help of over 70 nations in Coalition! It’s in our best interest, all of us. Pray we get another president as good as Bush.
We hope Afghanistan and Iraq and others become strong enough to run their nations the way they (collectively) want to, keep the murderering terrorists out, and help us free other captive Arabs in the future. And when it comes to Muslim Extremist Arab Terrorists, I hope all Arabs and non-Arabs alike have the sense to help us eliminate them! They’re a minority. They’re bad guys! They’d kill you or me with just as much animousity!
The tremendous majority of people in any nation are nice people who want life, liberty, and the freedom to pursue happiness. We all do. May we have as much peace and tranquility in our lifetimes as we can get!