[Fwd: Iraq Dispatches: Inside Abu Hanifa mosque during attack

[JD Runyan]

boblq wrote:
> Here we agree. I think we should enlarge that chink not ignore or
> abolish it. I can see an extension of the Geneva Conventions that
> within a millennium or two would lead to the concept that War itself
> is a crime and that those who pursue when found guilty are given 
> sentences appropriate to that crime. 
> 
How do you stop, capture, punish someone who is waging war?  I suggest 
that you engage them in war, and defeat them.
> 
> I do think that the greater long term problem is tyranny. A massive 
> global police state may well reduce war to the sort of gang warfare 
> we see in our cities (where last year 17000 homicides occurred) 
> and create a world without War but with economic Slavery that 
> is effectively worse. A world without War but segmented into 
> "haves and have mores" and "have nots" may be less attractive 
> than a world where war makes this segmentation still contentious. 
> 
I agree the tyranny of a police state is a far greater threat, then most 
of the dictators.  Sadly both sides of the political spectrum gravitate 
towards this tyranny. They just have different motivating causes, for 
lack of a better word.
> 
> I suppose we do to some extent agree here. When Bush decided, and as
> the last election appears to show a majority of US voters agreed, that the 
> US  would invade Iraq despite a lack of real provocation then we joined that 
> stream and turned our backs on an honorable tradition of not starting wars. 
Let us not forget that Iraq had been violating a cease fire agreement 
for 10 years. I never saw this as a new war, but simply a resumption of 
hostilities.  I know others see it very differently, but the lines are 
not as clearly drawn as we all would like when it comes to Iraq.

--
"It gets late early out there." -- Referring to the bad sun conditions 
in left field at the stadium.
--Yogi Bera