AKIron, I guess the main problem in the discussions here in this board about the War has been the use of the words "pro-Saddam" or "US-haters" to label ANYONE that was not in line with the official "approved way of thinking" of your government.
This has been reductive for the discussions and for the open exchange of ideas that all of us cut have have. (lost my english here, i guess)
The article you posted is a prove that some SOB (probably Saddam himself) was amassing money and other goods for future "personal" use, as usual in a dictature (and not only).
Your presumption that the Anti-war crowd is just a bunch of Saddam-lovers is wrong, if not an intended try to troll.
Nobody here (afaik) have said that Saddam's regime was a good thing.
The majority of the anti-war crowd, HERE, can be included in the "cut have been made differently under the UN cover" position.
And then there are people (like me) that cannot buy the "we wanted Iraqis to be free".
But, pay attention here:
The US soldier, most of US "common man" truely believe that, I cannot believe that at high level, high up in the "decision sphere", there is this group of saints that want to save the world from evil.
If this is the case, what about all those little dictators that do the same all around?
what about all the wars now ongoing (Afrika)?
There are others interests behind all this.
Oil?
Power?
Need for new markets?
Who nows? Maybe all the above.
Before and during this war the reasons have shifted from Terrorism to WMD to "Free the Iraqis", and some very vocal members have respected fully this shifting of the propaganda machine.
Yes, propaganda machine.
All of us, I repeat, ALL OF US, including me then, are submerged in a propaganda machine, but, be carefull, it's not the type of propaganda we can see looking back to WW2 Germany, Italy, and USA, it's a machine that have improved, have changed, has adapted to the modern overflow of informations (and sometime use it, too), and is more dangerous than ever.
Just check how works the publicity, if you stop for a moment and consider the hidden levels of messages in a common spot, you can be scared.
Massification... it's a term that has been overused (overflow technique), and for lot of people have lost sence, but is the basis of the "standardized market", it's easier to sell a product worldwide if the customers are of a standard type without many cultural differences.
Incidentally, the social model used is the US one, the one in wich this standardization have worked better.
Paranoid?
Well.. maybe
I am not convinced there's a plan to do the above, it's just an effect of economic forces, and a natural consequence of an economic and social system, something like the "leviathan" (Hobbes?).
But this is more scaring, because there is not a target to point, a group that you can point to and say "They are to blame", it's an entire system, OUR entire system, and change a system it's something that need an amount of energy way over the energy to overthrow a group of Evil people.
Damn, I digressed too much...
where are my pills....
