Fr. Erich+ wrote: <snip> > BTW, did all you guys see that the US and GB sent 30 > fighter bombers into Iraq day before yesterday? The military took out all the SAM batteries on > the corridor between Jordan and Baghdad. The US > media ignored it but it was all over the BBC. Perhaps the war against Iraq has already begun? > > Blessings, > Erich+ ========================== Fr. Erich: I have written of IRAQ WAR I and IRAQ WAR II as a device to contrast what we were involved in 12 years ago with the prospect of urban warfare in Baghdad. In reality, IRAQ WAR I has not come to an end. We have expended men and material in that conflict daily as we have patroled the skies over Iraq. We made 37 airstrikes this year alone, 43 in the year 2001, and 80 in the year 2000. We have made hundreds of airstrikes since we declared victory a dozen years ago, which makes it evident that declaring victory is not the same as making peace. The First GB declared victory when Iraqi forces were pushed back into their boundaries. I don't criticize him for not going further; he did all that he could do within the UN mandate. We had a very limited victory within those parameters, but Iraq War I was not over and is not to this day. I reiterate that our foreign policy has not failed in the past 12 years, for we have kept the Tiger in his cage. Each time he lifts a claw, we smack him down. I don't like that we have to play the world's policeman, but we and the British are acting within a legal framework to do this much. The Arab countries surrounding Iraq are irritated by our presence in their part of the world. But whether I don't like it, or they don't like it, the foreign policy of the US has prevented the war from spilling outside of Iraq's turf. If we and Iraq must play war, it is better in their backyard than ours,Iran's, Kuwait's or Israel's. Iraq War I is perceived by most of our citizens as a "Just War" because we have pushed a ruthless dictator back into his boundaries and kept him there. IMHO our administration, in spite of Condoleeza Rice's "mushroom cloud" speech, has not made the case for widening the war which would inevitably mean loss of life of non combatants. They haven't convinced me that my family and friends would be any safer from terrorists or that we would have done a better job of protecting Iraq's geographic neighbors than we are currently doing if we took the war to Baghdad. To inflict suffering and death on the populace already hurt by the embargo does not seem to me to be justified. My concern is also that the Evil Sadam may be baiting us to unleash a war that would so enrage the rest of the Arab world as to cause a wider conflict with other Arab countries. We have kept Sadam in the cage 12 years. What could it hurt to let him die in it? A few more years of stalemate and inevitably a new government will come to power that will want to restore normal trade relations and perhaps then we can negotiate a real end to Iraq War I. Charles __________________________________________________ Yahoo! - We Remember 9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute