Reasons for War

[Terrance]

The Great Quail wrote:
> Reasons for the war:
> 
> 3. Remove a regime that actively fosters terrorism. Complicated by the
> short-term problem that the inflamed Arab "street" may launch increased
> attacks against us. But in the long term, removing Saddam, his wealth, his
> prestige, and his terrorist camps is a good thing, and something I believe
> will out-weigh the short-term negatives.

This idea of an inflamed "Arab street"  is really quite xenophobic and
racist. Not that you are, Great Quail, but we should stop using such
racist and xenophobic media poop top describe a region of the world that
has a very diverse and complex views of the West and the of the United
States than such phrases allow. The so-called Arab "street" is a very
diverse one and they have very very conflicted interests and long old
conflicts that can't be set aside even in the interest of defeating a
common enemy (if the United States or the West were viewed as such by
the "street"  but this is not the case).  That being said, the idea that
there will be a thousand suicide bombers in NYC or that  fundamentalist,
anti-Western revolutions will erupt, say in Iran, and spread through the
so-called Arab "street" is ridiculous. Will Kuwait or the other Gulf
states erupt because Iraq has been invaded again by a US led coalition?
Of course not? Egypt? Don't be ridiculous? Iran? Oh come now, Iran
supported the Kurds and it's other allies inside Iraq (although it too
turned its back on the Kurds and cut a deal with Iraq prior to the
Iran-Iraq war) and has nothing but fear and hatred of Saddam. Of course
we shouldn't forget that the so called arab "street" includes old
conflicts between Persians and Arabs, Sunni and Shia, and hundreds of
other factions and conflicts that render the idea of an Arab street just
plain propaganda. In terms of Saddam sending money to Saudi suicide
pilots, well...of course he would, but they don't need his money. Powell
and the others are not convincing on this at all.