Robin Cook, Claire Short

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Originally posted by eoinh
Personally iraq is led by one of the biggest monsters of the recent age. However this has been known for years. The Americans, British and French (as well as others) used to supply them with wepons and armaments when they invaded Iran....

The americans prop up some of the most despotic and cruel regiemes around the world.....

At the moment there is a coup in the Central Afracian Republic. People dont care because they regard it as an unimportant country. The un asked for food aid and money for them. They recieved not one cent from the world combined.

i can guarentee you one thing, we wont see democratic government in Iraq just as we didnt see it in Kuwait after its liberation.

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That is the biggest problem that the yanks and british have - they keep on going on about the gassing of the kurds - but that was getting on for over 15 years ago now, pre the first gulf war!!
The recently repeated programme on Chavez in which the yanks supported a right wing coup in Venezuela (sp?), simply for the fact that he was wanting a far price for their oil (and countless other "regime changes" in South America eg Pinochet) show that this isn't about democracy. This is before you even take into account that very few Middle Eastern countries are democratic, if any. Infact the only democratic country there, has been ignoring UN resolutions since the 1950's....

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Originally posted by sadloserkid
Macy, can I ask who you vote for (generally)?

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Last time I voted in the UK it was for Socialist Labour; Here Labour - they haven't sold out to nearly the same extent, and Pat Rabitte/ Liz McManus is a step back in the right (left?) direction....

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Originally posted by Macy
Last time I voted in the UK it was for Socialist Labour; Here Labour - they haven't sold out to nearly the same extent, and Pat Rabitte/ Liz McManus is a step back in the right (left?) direction....

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Alrighty then. Voted Labour myself last time out on the grounds that (A)it'll be a cold day in hell before I vote FG, (B) While our FF's seem to be among that party's least corrupt, Junior Minister O'Dea can be quite rough with his missus and on a national scale he rates up there with the solar powered torch for usefullness, (C) Tim O'Malley is a PD and (D)The smaller parties either didn't run anybody (Greens, Sinn Fein) or else they just plain suck (Christian Democrats et al...) And Jan O'Sullivan's alright anyways. :)

I think Claire Short is not resigning cos aid people convinced her to stay as apparently she pretty good in her job & be usefult o properly reconstruct Iraq.

I think the fact that they (US/UK) could not even get a security council majority for the 2nd resolution tells a lot about the legalities of this upcoming war. Leaving aside the French veto IMO the US/UK would have gladly accepted a simple security council majority as a justification for War. The fact they could not convince the likes of Cameroon, Chile etc... does not leave them IMO with justification to invade Iraq.

IMO biological weapons are not "mass destruction weapons" as these days does not take much know how to produce them & be surprised if not a huge range of countries have access to these.

The whole UN diplomacy has been a chirade with the UK trying to prevent the US from acting on its own. Fact is the US is now & will continue to do pretty much whatever they want to. Similarily the US is so tied to Israel that it will never act as an honest broker (i.e. stop funding Israel) in any Palestine peace negotiations.

btw the US media from what i've observed is a joke & won't discuss anything controversial or that challenges the government line.

:rolleyes:

From what you've Heard?
Try for yourself.
Fox News or Cnn.
Fecking sickening tripe.

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Originally posted by pete
I think Claire Short is not resigning cos aid people convinced her to stay as apparently she pretty good in her job & be usefult o properly reconstruct Iraq.

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According to Short herself it was "talking to Tony" which convinced her to stay.
Any plausible sounding excuse is better than none:rolleyes:
In the infamous interview she gave, she said "Blair's handling of the "crisis" was reckless" and unless there was "UN sanction for any action" she would "definitely resign".

Balir's handling has not changed, the UN has not sanctioned any action, ergo Short is a busted flush.

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Originally posted by oddboy
Can I ask you why you make this statement, and what evidence you have to justify it?

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Cheaper Oil
Boom in world arms trade
mutli-billion contracts to rebuild Iraq
New market for US products


They wouldn't do it because they think it to be morally right alone, there has to be something in it for them.

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Originally posted by SÓCcfc
Cheaper Oil
Boom in world arms trade
mutli-billion contracts to rebuild Iraq
New market for US products

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You could be right, but these things do not automatically follow..

Cheaper oil...maybe, remember it's a diminishing resource. As American reserves run out, more needs to be imported. This will not mean oil will get cheaper.

Boom in world arms trade.....well there will be one less despot to purchase any, and if American policy follows it's present logic, arms sales will be curtailed as they will not want any country to have huge military reserves, and can America keep spending vast amounts of it's own budget to the detriment of all other sections of it's economy?

mutli-billion contracts to rebuild Iraq.....remember this war is being funded almost entirely by America. Some American companies may benefit from the contracts, but it will be almost impossible for the government to get back anything near what they are spending.

New market for US products...there is not that many people in Iraq. A medium sized market, not a huge one.

The state of the American economy is dire and the Bush regime seems utterly incapable of reversing the trend. Bush has basically said he is going to be fighting an unending war. How long before the American people get sick of this?