zionism

[Brad DeLong]

>Brad DeLong wrote:
>
>>  We're not talking about "justice" here. Justice requires that
>>  Palestinians be able to return to Jaffa. Justice requires that Iraqi
>>  Jews be able to return to Baghdad. Justice requires that the
>>  Palestinian Authority, the Saudi Kingdom, and the Egyptian state
>>  transform themselves into democracies. Justice requires that
>>  non-Jewish Russians cease to be anti-semitic, and that dry bones of
>>  the six million Jews killed by Europeans half a century ago come to
>>  life again.
>>
>>  We're talking about peace--a very different thing than justice. And
>>  to shut out peace on the grounds that it isn't justice is to
>>  guarantee that you will get neither.
>.
>I agree with all of this. Pragmatism and reasonable compromise are the only
>ways to bring peace and prevent the loss of innocent lives -- see below:
>
>Seth Ackerman wrote:
>
>When Saddam Hussein took Kuwait, America said half a loaf was unacceptable.
>Justice demanded 100% of Kuwait be returned, along with various other
>demands. If the demands weren't met, the price was not "low-level war" but a
>pretty catastrophic carpet bombing of 22 million people (not to mention a
>decade of embargo to prevent reconstruction.)
>
>Seth

Oh. You want *that* level of service. You only get *that* level of 
service if you have *lots* of oil.

It still strikes me as very strange. According to people who ought to 
know, Bush offered Saddam Hussein the resolution of all prewar oil 
drilling disputes on Iraqi terms, plus a bunch of money in return for 
the peaceful Iraqi evacuation of Kuwait. But Saddam Hussein believed 
that he had a dominating interest in being seen to stand up to the 
U.S. in a military confrontation (even if he lost decisively) and 
Bush believed that he had a dominating interest in demonstrating 
America's military power...

And then after November 1992 Bill Clinton doesn't dare do anything to 
make him appear to be softer on Iraq than George Bush...

Brad DeLong