Island Peace Committee

I don’t usually correct spelling mistakes, but it’s ‘Peeve’, I believe, Peter, not ‘peave’. One of the funnier typos I’ve seen recently.

DEAR FRIENDS OF SADDAM

When they are not taking off their clothes, burning flags, banging drums, throwing up, or spitting on police, these are the arguments they yell

Wayne - Could not agree more especially about the lack of options

Paulo Coelho, noted Brazilian author, responds best to this line of thinking in his open letter to Pres. Bush, reproduced below. Though it won’t likely convince those in favor of this war, it most certainly establishes that those opposed are not, by virtue of their opposition, “Friends of Saddam”… and may actually be intelligent, thoughtful people. Imagine.

“Thank you, great leader George W. Bush.

Thank you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam Hussein represents. Many of us might otherwise have forgotten that he used chemical weapons against his own people, against the Kurds and against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty dictator and one of the clearest expressions of evil in today

Mitch: this line of thinking you refer to serves to point out

Wayne, I don’t think your argument fairly addresses the valid concerns of those who object. For example, it is true that the US did not help the Kurds when they were gassed or support the southern revolt that they encouraged. It is also true that the Turks have greater issues than 26 billion in funding at play in their decisions. It is also true that both the UK and US did a horrible job of making the case in the months that led up to the beginning of the war. These problems and other exist on the side of the coalition which support opposition to the way the war is justified, especially within the Iraqi population Asking an Iraqi to trust US and UK forces now when each has a legacy throught the 20th century of being or supporting the tyrrant in Iraq is going to be a big problem.

These factors goes some what to understand the justified nationalism that is in part fueling the resistance to the coalition on the ground. I think there is a big difference in “racial” nationalism of a fascist kind a la Slobo Milosovic and cultural nationalism. When I was in Poland in 1991 teaching there was great support by the average guy for the move of the military to take over government in the 1980s as a nationalist effort to dal with the fall of communism while keeping out Soviets. For many Iraqis, there may be a feeling that while Saddam may be a tyrrant, at least he is homegrown. For those Iraqis, the past acts of the US and UK will have to be overcome.

Don’t get me wrong - I think these legacies can be overcome and that the protesters will be shown wrong in many of their arguments…but to say that they are obviously incorrect arguments across the board is not correct either. The proof will be in the pudding, not in the promise.

Well…I don’t think I meant they were always wrong, Alan. Just that so many of their antics negate any credibility of other issues they might have. And, I wanted to put it in writing…I admit I wrote that item quickly and could have done it better if I took more time. However, it is because of these intelligence-insulting arguments (excuse for civil disobedience, parties, whatever), that I cannot agree with anything they say.

Yes, the failure to support the Kurds and Shiites was due to political pressure from the Turks and Saudis

You are right. There is far too much of the extreme in the postion of the protests. Just on the UK legacy, I was reminded at lunch of a recent New Yorker article on the British in Iraq and in the 1920’s they had a policy of bombing bedhouin communities as the only efficient way to deal with them. The British military grave yard is still used as the dump in one town quite on purpose.

Anybody who wants to send a card of thanks to the American troops in Iraq fighting for Canada and others, can do so at…

http://www.defendamerica.mil/n…

I grabbed this URL of an Iraqi guy’s blog of life within the warzone before I saw Wayne’s directly above so the juxtiposition is somewhat coincidence:

http://www.dear_raed.blogspot….