I find this to be somewhat amusing. On one hand I see the french and germans trying to take the high road here "morally" by being against a war with iraq. They claim we are acting unilaterally and without any justification.
Some here claim that since there were no iraqi's on the planes in 9/11 that iraq has no bearing on the war on terrorism. Since iraq cannot mount an invasion of America they are no threat to the United States. There are other ways to attack the US without a full scale military invasion. 9/11 already proved that. Bush stated right after the attack that we would consider those who shelter or give aid to terrorist organizations to be the same as the terrorists. There will be no middle ground as long as there is a threat of terrorism to this country. The nations that claim neutrality or actually favor iraq in this issue are likely to be interested in maintaining a "peacefull" relationship hoping to avoid attacks on their own soil. Apeasement might buy them that freedom from attack for a while, until they do something that does not placate the terrorist organization.
Some claim it's about oil and or money.
Some claim that it's about making their own decision for their countries "best interests". The last one I agree with. That happens to be the same reason the US is going forward without the allies we had before.
The french and germans try to maintain the "high moral ground" here on this bbs by saying the conflict is bad since they dissagree with it. The interests they are protecting happens to be the money they themselves have invested in saddumb. They are afraid that they will lose the lucrative deals they haev with iraq if there is a regime change. International law however maintains that valid financial agreements with a country remain valid after there is a change in government. If the agreements are in fact valid the french and germans have no fears about their finances in and with iraq, unles of course there is a problem with those agreements. There IS a bit of coin involved here after all. The travesty of trashing the US about money and oil when france and germany stand to proffit as long as saddumb remains in power is hardly a "high moral ground". The reason for france and germany to oppose the conflict IS about money. Not much, if anything else, but money. It's in their self interest to keep the oil for THEIR country flowing uninterupted and continue to sell goods to iraq the way things are now.
The same goes for russia as they are the number one arms dealer for iraq. Oil for weapons that the russians haven't the need for now is lucrative. That is in their best interests as well. At least they haven't had the gall to claim it's for a moralistic purpose. for that. It does let them exercise a bit of international clout and IMO they miss that option.
For those who take a side one way or another, this will play out in the near future one way or another. I intend to sit back and watch how it works. Idle debate here is both fruitless and irrelevant as none here have the authority to make any substantive changes in the situation. If they did, they'd be too damn busy working their own "interests" on the world events.
As for my own actions, I cannot participate in the conflict as there are no plans for retiree's to be activated at this time. I already checked. The least I can do is make an impact financially by "voting with MY dollars" for those producers of goods who's country has made a stand on this issue. It may not be much but I'll no longer support french or german goods. That includes those who are owned by non US corporations such as daimler chrysler.
I fully expect everyone who has an opinion in this issue to do likewise. Boycott the national products of your choice and get on with life in the short term. In the long term, IF you have free elections, vote your conscience at the next election and canvass your representatives about what you are thinking. These are the responsible things to do irregardless of which side of the fence you reside. Protest, debate or post all you want but do not be deceived that whatever you post here will have any bearing on the actions of your government. After all, how many national leaders of the main powers involved paly this game and take an active interest in this bbs?
Feel free to spew the hatred and devisiveness all you want, far be it from me to spoil your fun. Just keep it in perspective that it simply don't amount to squat here in relationship to the "big picture". Same goes for this post as well.
For those who like to make a vituperative anonomous post I'd like to raise the bar a bit here by posting MY name to MY post. My profile has never been anonomous and neither am I. You do as you like. Your actions about this will say more about you whichever way you decide to identify yourself.
Cheers.
Maverick
Aka LTC Barr, Armor USAR (ret)
AKA Officer Barr Tucson PD (ret/ disabled)
