Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00171)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> Iraq is not surrounded by neighbors who have sworn to kill every 
last 
> man, woman and child in Iraq

The reference was to WMDs and not to the means of self defense. 
Please explain how a country can defend itself by releasing 
biological agents which would wipe out all life on earth.

> Please learn the definition of the word, "depleted".

I missed your point. As I said, there is some reason to believe that 
genetic defects in Iraq are caused by chemical agents used by the 
Iraqi government, but for reasons unknown Iraqi doctors have not come 
forth and publicly blamed this on Saddam Hussein and his sons. The 
same depleted uranium was used in Kosovo, but I have heard nothing 
about Yugoslavia glowing in the dark or everyone there dying from 
radiation poisoning.

> What right does 
> Belgium have that the United States does not?

So what are you saying? That the US should arrest Sharon?

And isn't the fact that 
> the people that Israel is killing are in the process of fighting a 
war 
> of extermination against Israel relevant?

Acts of self defense are always acceptable. Targeting specific 
terrorists for arrest or assassination is always acceptable. 
Slaughtering an entire village of innocent people is bad politics and 
does nothing to secure the domestic security. It is moreover a war 
crime. Bear in mind that Sharon is a single man, not an entire 
country, and his massacres are not isolated events but a continuing 
pattern.

> This was the rule in Europe for centuries, right up until World War 
II 
> (except in England and the Netherlands).

You mean England. Jews were persecuted in the Netherlands during 
occupation. The Netherlands were also a dependency of Spain at one 
time.

> Sure. They tried to wipe out their neighbors, and failed.

Some did. The innocent should not be punished for the sins of the 
guilty, IMO.

And they are 
> being treated FAR better than Jews are in Arab countries.

How many Jews are there remaining in Arab countries? I thought they 
had all emigrated by now.

> you have not mentioned Saddam 
> Hussein's slaughter of A MILLION AND A HALF Arabs in Iraq who 
belonged 
> to the "wrong" Islamic sect

I am not a Saddam fan, but your facts are suspect. If you were 
right, the Mandaeans would have been wiped out long ago.

> The Arab definition of peace in Palestine is the slaughter of every 
> Jewish man, woman and child.

That is probably true, but my point was that the menu of options for 
an outside power trying to broker a peace is limited, and it is. It 
is extraordinarily naive to blame the Arab-Israeli conflict on ANY 
outside power, including the US.