This place sure goes in "spurts"

Liam Proven lproven at gmail.com
Mon Jul 20 16:39:08 BST 2009


2009/7/20 Odd <iodine at runbox.no>:
> David Sanders wrote:
>> 2009/7/20 Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>:
>>> Iraq was something like an oasis of stability and non-religious safety
>>> in the middle east - but he offended Bush Sr. The Gulf War 1 didn't
>>> kill him off, and so even though the USA's CIA set him up in the first
>>> place, Saddam had to go. I find it tragic.
>>>
>> I was actually referring to the constant bombings and economic
>> sanctions imposed by the UK and US between the two Gulf wars. This
>> lead to a 5% reduction in population numbers, and I would imagine the
>> number is far higher now.
>>
>> Saddam was, as with most tinpot dictators, an evil abhorrent man, but
>> his faults lie with the fact the US prised him into power anyway.
>>
>> If anyone's foreign policy can be compared with Hitler's, it's GWBs.
>
> To be fair, he only invaded one country that didn't deserve it.
> The Soviets foreign policy is a far more comparable to
> Hitler's.

That's true, but they are long gone from the world now. And no bad
thing, either.

I can't think of anyone who quite compares with the "third reich" for
territorial acquisitiveness since them. China probably comes closest.

But I think it's worth preserving the memory of the dangers of
extreme-right government for as long as we can; the memories of the
danger of extreme-left are just a bit fresher and more recent.

Extremism generally is a bad thing. Extremist religion is a terrible
thing and a massive danger to education, reason, freedom, human rights
and personal liberty. It doesn't matter what the religion is that is
being taken to extremes: fundamentalist "christians" are just as
odious, offensive and dangerous as fundamentalist muslims.

Personally, I try to limit my own extremism to being anti-extremist. :¬)

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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