What a mess in Iraq. I don’t know how much it is going to take to fix the damage.

The parallels to British colonialism are striking, 100 years after colonialism was a dying strategy…Bushco apparently thought they could resurrect it. Shoot a despot and a few generals, hand out a few briefcases of dollars…it worked in Panama and Grenada, why not Iraq?

What a mess, and like a chess game where one has dropped pieces and is pinned and forked…there may not be any good moves.

I agree that there should be checks to secure the liberty and safety of the world’s citizens. If Bush had said, “Saddam is practicing genocide on his country’s population” and used that as an argument to bring Saddam to an international court (by force if necessary), I think most Americans would have agreed. But that process wouldn’t have made the tragedy that we now see. And, that process could have resulted in an orderly transition of power. It would also have acted as a deterrent to other leaders who had a propensity for tyranny.

I don’t believe that all war is unavoidable or even bad when applied in defense against an aggressor, but I don’t believe in preemptive war or war to exert dominion over another nation such as the China/Tibet situation. I do think that there are more peaceable means to bring about positive change for the good of humanity.

Yes, we should not force our form of government on any other country. Each country should adopts what suits them best. However, I do feel that the international community has a responsibility to protect people from human rights abuses. There should be checks and bounds that makes this protections available to everyone.

I don’t know what would solve the problem in Iraq. I do think that turning the mess over to a neutral third party like the UN or a coalition made up of other Arabic nations would be a start. I think that alleged war criminals should be tried in an international court of law regardless if the criminal is a head of government or a high level government official in a democracy. I don’t believe that anyone should profit from their illegal acts or be exempt from the consequences of their acts especially when their acts have cost so many innocent lives. (This would not include low ranking troops who only did as they were commanded.)

I would be willing to bet that at least 95% of the people of Iraq (and of any other nation) are good people, but I do not believe that the people of Iraq will act in a peaceful way until they feel safe from within and from without. Exercising judgement and demanding justice of the 5% who are proven to be bad on both sides of the war would go a long way in solving the problem. It is hard to build schools when you are under fire.

Also, I don’t think that America or any other nation has the right to force their form of government on another nation. I think that the people of any given nation should be free to choose their own form of government and if the form that is freely chosen is not a democracy, so be it. I love my liberty, but I have had Muslim women for neighbors who didn’t want any part of it. I don’t understand why but I don’t need to. They were happy to go back to Saudi Arabia and live under Saudi law.