----- Original Message ----- From: "Cian" <co015d5200 at blueyonder.co.uk> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 3:01 PM Subject: RE: How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them
> Ian Murray said:
> >
> > Nor did I assert that you asserted..................................Just
> > which arguments against a war that will carry the day is the issue. I
> brought
> > up the example because it also helps knock out the reparative justice
> > argument.
>
> No it fucking doesn't. All it proves is that the US is hypocritical.
> Countries behave differently to allies/clients - than they do to countries
> with whom they have no relationship.
>
> If you want to prove its not reparative justice, use another argument.
================
Yes it does because it debunks the shared assumption of either side to the debate that use "export of weapons by the US" shall be partly constitutive of the criteria -whether positively or negatively viewed- to be used to assess any action to be taken against a named adversary.
It also helps debunk the rabid individualism/reification of Saddam as omnipotent. That way the argument can be shifted over to the negative contagion/spillover/destabilization effects that may ensue from a prolonged -and it would be *long* time before the US could exit- presence in the region.
Ian