Would you support military action to remove him?
No, but I would give support to all other means to remove him. I would call his lies lies, I would speak out against him from a political tribune, I would publish critical articles of his policies, I would show my support for his rivals, I would challenge his moral right to do what he does: ALL FROM WITHIN THE LAW.
Bush broke the international law by attacking a country while unprovoked, he circumvented the law by arresting people without chrages or the possibility of a fair trial, he bypassed the security council of the UN, he smeared his opponents with lies and tried to boost his own stature with lies.
I do not hate him, I honestly fear him. The actions he has taken up to now are the same steps dictators have always taken in the past: to unite your people and make them rally behind you, create an enemy. To assure your dominion, request special powers for an emergency and then make them permanent. Promulgate laws that heighten the control that you can excert over people's daily lives. Control the media and punish critics.
This is exactly what has been done from Cesar to Hitler. Do you know that Mussolini said "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, because it is the merger of state and corporate power." This quote does indeed remind me of Bush. He protects the interests of the powerfull, so they can help him stay in power. A government should protect the interests of the weakest in its society. It should care for those who cannot care for themselves. I do not see this happening, quite the opposite really.
Bush has been bullying the world around, sometimes with success, sometimes not. He has successfully removed Saddam from power, but what has he brought instead? Up to now he hasn't brought a good alternative. Think about Afghanistan. Is there a democracy in Afghanistan now? No there is not. Is there freedom in Afghanistan now? No there is not. Not yet at least, but I wouldn't dare to say yet whether the people there are better off now. The Taliban had an iron rule there and a wrong one from our perspective. We removed that rule and instead of it there now in chaos. There have been philosophers that have argued that civil war, anarchy and chaos are much much worse than tyranny. The same applies to Iraq. We have removed a dictatorial regime, and up to now this has only brought more death and destruction. The Iraqis have lived in fear under Saddam and arguably live in worse fear right now. Time will tell how this will change and whether it will change to the best.
Concerning Germany: America dragged its feet at coming into the war. Up to Pearl Harbor it didn't do absolutly anything of significance to stop Hitler. Arguably the worst fact about the war was the racism, etnich cleansing and holocaust. As for the rest, it was simply an ordinary war. One countries military against the other countries military. A lot of innocent civilians died on both sides. Whereas in america's attack on Iraq, Iraq didn't really ahve any armaments worth speaking of. The USA could simply barge in. But this has been a much different war. Barging into Iraq was like barging into a beehive, because the Iraqis resorted to guerrilla warfar. Yes, you can call them terrorists, but in fact this is simply guerrilla warfare. Small groups attacking and retreating. If the Iraqis would win in the end, we would call them Freedom Fighters and Rightful Rebels, if the USA win, we call them terrorists and enemy combatants.
The reasons that have been give for the war are no reasons at all but simply an attempt to rationalise the fact afterwards. Saddam did not help Al-quaeda: it was a secular military dictatorship, which is very different from a clerical theocracy. Saddam did not possess weapons of mass destruction: all he ever had was bought from the USA anyway. Saddam was not actively capable of anything else but "defying" the UN in very general terms. Besides sneering he could't do much more. Iraq was backrupt and dependent on foreign aid for the most part of its supplies of food and medicine. What could he have done?
The USA claim to protect and bring freedom on democracy. The ones who have killed Allende and installed Pinochet should think twice before repeating this claim: read some of
these declassified documents (
introduction). I know my enemy, do you know yours?
