Quote from alfonso:
Kymar, it is becoming glaringly obvious to me that you cannot help but to infuse your posts with whatever emotion you happen to be feeling at the time. (As evidenced by your childish remark that I have "ZERO" interest in freedom [humanity, compassion etc]).
Nobody is denying that such gruesome things occurred in Iraq. The question is do such occurrances warrant an invasion, occupation and a well-chosen regime change? You are happy to don your Superman cape and scream "Hell YES!" but others, like me, are not so sure. (Well, I'm sure -- sure that the answer is hell NO!).
In themselves, crimes against humanity of the sort perpetrated by Saddam's regime certainly justify change. Where such atrocities are widespread, and in fact constitute the basis of the regime's hold on power, they make that regime totally illegitimate, in my view. How one goes about effecting the completely worthwhile goal of getting rid of such criminals is another question. Unfortunately, for complex reasons, this goal is not readily achievable in all parallel instances.
As so often, you misquote and misconstrue even the simplest statement. I said you "evidenced" zero appreciation for human freedom. Over and over again, you find excuses for tyrants and totalitarians, seek to minimize the
overwhelming evidence of widespread and systematic brutality in Baathist Iraq in particular, and in the meantime place your particular
position on "international law" - which you seem to fantasize is some sacrosanct, fully developed corpus of reasonable, comprehensive, and universally just and applicable regulations - above the fates of real, living and breathing victims.
Now, after having been pulled kicking and screaming out into the light, you seem to admit that getting rid of Hussein et al is a good thing. Ok, I'll concede, that appears to show at least
some appreciation for human freedom, though I don't see how that can possibly, in any reasonable way, square with your repeatedly stated (and typically fantastical) wish for an American military defeat in Iraq. I wouldn't even be surprised to learn that your "whole-hearted" anti-Americanism is, in your mind, based on this and related postive values. I strongly believe, however, that if you held human freedom to be deserving of more than grudging acceptance within your value system, you would be incapable of "whole-hearted" anti-Americanism, and, indeed, your entire worldview, as expressed in some detail on ET, would need to be extensively re-adjusted.