> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 05:32:29 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Juan Cole Answers "The Questions of Christopher
> Hitchens"
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <20040423123229.81262.qmail at web41115.mail.yahoo.com>
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> from -
>
> <http://www.juancole.com/2004_04_01_juancole_archive.html#108270330328907049
> >
[...]
> My reply would be simple. If you are arguing for war,
> you don't have to ask all these fancy questions. There
> are really only two questions you have to answer. The
> first is, would you yourself be willing to die
> fighting for this cause you have espoused? The second
> is, would you be willing to see your 18-year-old son
> or daughter killed for this cause? (I do not ask if
> you would be glad or satisfied; I ask if you would be
> willing).
>
[...]
> With regard to Iraq, the answer to both questions in
> my case is "no." I would not have been willing to risk
> my own life to dislodge Saddam Hussein from power.
> And, I would certainly not have been willing to see my
> son risk his, nor would I like to see him ever sent to
> Iraq as a draftee, because I believe the entire
> aftermath of the war has been handled with gross
> incompetence, and I certainly don't want my flesh and
> blood mauled by the machinations of Richard Perle and
> his buddies.
Yet Cole wrote on 2/5/03: http://www.juancole.com/2003_02_01_juancole_archive.html
There is no doubt that Saddam launched this chemical weapons campaign (which was also waged on the battlefield against Iranian troops, with devastating results). Persons may argue in good faith about whether his resort to weapons of mass destruction in 1988 justifies forcible regime change now. My own knowledge of the horrors Saddam has perpetrated makes it impossible for me to stand against the coming war, however worried I am about its aftermath. World order is not served by unilateral military action, to which I do object. But world order, human rights and international law are likewise not served by allowing a genocidal monster to remain in power.