>It's just too stupid a war with too many possibilities of being
>counter-productive. Frankly, if you really hate the US, you should
>cheerlead this war, since the results are likely to inflame enemies of the
>country. I'm sure Bin Laden as his ilk would like nothing more than to see
>the Iraq war. It's a bit like the Likud and Hamas feeding off each other's
>extremism as the expense of the health, security and economic well-being of
>their respective societies.
>
>-- Nathan newman
I don't really care whether or not theocratic fascists are inflamed. They've inflamed me. I'm not confident about what I think will happen post-war on Saddam, however, without Saddam and the economic sanctions and with the oil, Iraqis could be better off and hence more moderate. Saddam could no longer economically support the extreme elements of Hamas. (To take one example Abu Nidal, the Palestinian thug who spent a career killing more moderate Palestinians, lived under Saddam's protection until his death). Just because the US is the cause of all this is no reason to dismiss it a priori (unless you believe the US can't be a moral agent anytime, anywhere.)
A more modern Iraq would be an example to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. And perhaps it would aid the youthful, modernizing forces of Iran, along with the modernizing elements of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I wonder what Israeli leftists make of this (not the sectarians, folks). Our Israeli friend hasn't posted in awhile. If Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq became more modern and democratic it would be disasterous for Likud and helpful to the Palestinian cause (not to mention the Kurdish one).
I still think there's a chance Saddam will gas Israel and Israel will nuke Iraq and cleanse the Palestinians. But if Saddam got nukes, there's a better chance these horrors and worse would occur. The evidence for this is his refusal to allow in weapons inspectors, his sponsorship of Palestinian extremists, his invasion of Kuwait (without an okay from the UN Security Council), his invasion of Iran (again without an okay from the UN Security Council but as a result of US prompting.)
Peter