Weazel is certainly correct about the war being about oil

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I never said Saddam wasn't the primary cause.

I can't say the UN isn't a secondary cause either.
-SW

[Steve]

No, you said this: that excerpt shows how the UN's sanctions have killed of half a million Iraqi children and growing.

If the UN would be allowed to continue to impose these sanctions, the number would keep growing.


You clearly are repeating that the UN is responsible and make no mention of Saddam.  You're looking at the trees, see the forest.  You're kinda missing where I'm going... I don't blame ya because my words seem hostile. (I shouldn't have called you a fool,  I'm sorry.)
Let me rephrase it a little bit.  You don't impress me as being anywhere near a moron so I find it hard to believe that you really feel the U.N. is responsible.  There was no evidence of the Iraqi government being short of funds.. quite the contrary.  With this in in mind, along with the fact that Saddam could have imported all the food he wanted, any truly reasonable person must conclude that Saddam chose not to feed his people, ergo he is at fault for their starvation.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Yes, and that was based on what that article said. Not what I believed.

I am clearly stating that I realize Saddam is the primary cause, but I do believe the UN sanctions are a "behind the scenes" cause.

Look at it this way: Without UN sanctions, would of there been an ability for independent groups of people to form their own monetary funds via use of exports and imports? Exporting their goods and making money, importing goods and selling them for a slightly higher price thusly making money.

Before the UN sanctions, did Saddam have complete control over all monetary funds throughout the country? Or did it happen after the UN sanctions when Saddam realized he would now be forced to keep control of all the countries money to pay for him and his to ensure their loyalty?

That's what I'm getting at. Not that I believe Saddam is a big ol' innocent nice guy who's only problems are the UN, but did the UN have a hand in putting all the country's money underneath Saddam's control?
-SW

[Steve]

Quote:Without UN sanctions, would of there been an ability for independent groups of people to form their own monetary funds via use of exports and imports? Exporting their goods and making money, importing goods and selling them for a slightly higher price thusly making money.


I dunno, were they allowed to do that by the regime, then restricted from doing so by the UN?

Quote:but did the UN have a hand in putting all the country's money underneath Saddam's control?

I dunno.. did they?  These arew things I don't know about.

I DO know that the oil profits always went to the government and I thought it was some of these profits that the UN was helping themselves to... is this incorrect?

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

It's that the regime was making tons of profit on oils from the getgo, then when the UN put a strangle hold on it- the profit dropped and I believe the regime ran out of the massive overspill of profits it had before. This then led to less trickle down to the bottom rung of the Iraqi population. It wasn't that Saddam ran low on money to show off his power and riches, and make monument after monument- it's that there wasn't so much money that Saddam allowed it to get further down the line. Of course, it all depends on who the Iraqi children are who were dying. If they were of a particular people, then they would of been dying off anyway because Saddam didn't care about certain people. Anyway, I don't have the time to delve into this further tonite.

Oil wasn't the only thing restricted, but I have to search to find the list... can't do it tonite, have lots of stuff to get done.

Last post for tonite, I'll get the list of restricted exports/imports tommorrow or thursday and cover in more detail what I mean.
-SW

[Pongo]

Fatty did you misscount the zeros in your last post.
isnt 40,000,000 40 million? not 40 billion?

weazel. Its just a coincincidence.