On Tue, Feb 18, 2003 at 07:58:54PM -0800, Doug Pensinger wrote: > Well that may be what he meant, but this is what he said: > > > Whether they are or are not, unfortunately, will have no effect on > > European public opinion, for two major reasons:
> > 1. The people protesting the war don't give a damn about Iraqi > > civilians - they're just a prop to attack the US with While I wouldn't have phrased it so absolutely as that, it does seem to me that a majority of war protesters don't adequately consider the lives of most of the Iraqi people. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing an anti-war position presented that made a convincing argument that the best thing for the Iraqi people is for Saddam to remain in power. The closest thing I have seen is an unsupported reference that there could be a lot of civilian (Iraqi) casualties in the war, but I haven't seen a war-opponent take the next step and compare that possible outcome (preferably providing support for why they think their estimated numbers are correct) to what has happened and is likely to continue to happen to Iraqis under Saddam. The Americans fought to be free of the British, and the British were much more humane rulers than Saddam. The French fought to be free of the nobles. The Iraqis haven't put up much of a resistance to Saddam, but it seems to me that it is more likely not because most Iraqis desire Saddam's rule, but rather because Saddam is so brutally competent at suppressing resistance. Perhaps a closer analogy would be American slaves -- they didn't put up an effective resistance by themselves but needed help from Lincoln and the Northern army to win their freedom. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
