Would you guys please leave golf out of it? It's just a silly little game played with a silly little ball by... people! lol
The UN is useless, in major part, because of the US and because of the power of the veto. It could be made very useful and very effective if the major powers wanted it to be. The questions raised by Ztriker and answered by imperial go to the heart of this issue. History is also an important tool to use to examine the rights and wrongs of the invasion but history is almost invariably written by those with a vested interest. Those who do not have such a vested interest are kept away from the events that are taking place or have taken place. In other words, looking for the whole truth by reading pages in history books will give us an opaque and confusing perspective of the events.
Compare the Japanese history books to those of China. Compare the history books of F.Y.R.O.M with those of Greece. Compare the history books of Turkey with those of the Armenians. etc, etc, etc.
BUT we can evaluate each action taken by politicians -not ever by soldiers!- as they take place. We can see that the reasons the US admin gave for attacking Iraq were lies. We could see it as they were rolling them out for us and we have proven them to be so, since.
Comparing one lot of war crimes with another is always fraught with difficulty, though one can do it in very general terms. Comparing individual criminals with each other is not always helpful. Was Saddam like Hitler? Are Bush, Blair, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Howard new manifestations of Hitler? No point in making the comparison other than to give a general overVIEW that, yes, they all acted illegally and caused the deaths of many innocent people. To my mind, there's no such species of violence called "just war." "Just defence," maybe but "just war" no... and the fact that occasionally I feel inclined to hug a tree does not have any bearing on my thinking on this matter.
To my mind, the attack on Iraq had nothing to do with WMDs, or 911 (as Smiler, I think, tried to suggest that it was related); nor Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and I think that oil is only part of the reason, as is the fact that Saddam was about to drop the USdollar and go to Euros. IMHO, the attack was all about dominance of the region... which also means dominance of the planet. It's being done not only militarily but also by stangulating and dominating the world economy. Iraq is strategically important in that aim. Take out Iraq, replace it with people who will obey your philosophy and you take out a great chunk of the planet.
Syria is next and she will be no trouble. Same routine, same manipulation of grainy photos, same setting up of liars. Iran won't be that much trouble either, once places like Syria bow down.
The killing won't stop, the innocent will continue to be slaughtered, the economy of these countries will stay devastated but those in the W'house -and the Pentagon, will still be sucking in the life blood of the rest of the world and the world will be doing nothing about it because all its leaders will be replaced by obsequious and beaten men and women.
I don't like the scenario at all and I certainly hope that it won't take place but nothing in the last decade will erase even an iota of this pessimistic and despondent narrative.
But today I shall remain cheery. It's Easter lunch day for us Greeks. Lots of good food, excellent cheer and optimism-clogged hugs and kisses. To my Greek mates, HRONIA POLLA KAI ORAIA! Crack everyone else's egg.
