Bush to Saddam: Get out of Iraq in two days or prepare to die.

[A Black Falcon]

Look. Iraq is better off without Sadaam. So is the world. Sadaam's army is pathetic. Sadaam is a brutal dictator with a history of killing his own people and using chemical and biological weapons. Those are all true.

But NONE of that is relevant for what I'm trying to say.

Its about international law! Any other good nation that isn't in isolation tries to follow international law. They generally follow the rules.... and when they don't they get punished by the international community. No matter what you call this war, there is one thing that is a unquestionable truth: By the rules of international law, this is NOT a legal war. A legal war requires either a action in defence of your nation, or the approval of the UN. Neither is remotely the case here. Not even close. This is NOT a war of defending the US from anything. Iraq poses NO threat to US security and is not, to any knowledge that any public group knows, funding any terrorists other than the Palestinians. There isn't just no proven link between Sadaam and Bin Laden... there's extremely good reasons why that link is nearly impossible! Why? Well, Sadaam is a secular leader. Try as much as he does to try to pretend to be a religious leader leading a war against the evil western powers, he is at heart secular, not religous. Building lots of mosques won't change that. Bin Laden is a religious leader. He believes very strongly in his twisted version of religion. I VERY, VERY much doubt that he'd have ANY interest in someone like Sadaam... they are polar opposites on the scale, I'd have to say.

So no terrorism connection to the US. No even remote proof of any new threats from Iraq to the US. Nothing new happening in Iraq that hadn't been going on since 1991. Nothing. Except 9/11. That gave Bush a perfect opportunity to take out Sadaam -- someone that his good friends the Washington hawks had been gunning for ever since Bush Sr. left him in power... and what's better than making them happy, making up for Dad, and getting rid of a "terrorist threat"? Not much, naturally...

So. Bush presents his extremely flimsy "evidence" that Iraq has broken the many UN resolutions so much that war is necessary. Thankfully, some powerful nations didn't buy into his nonexistant "proof"... so no resolution authorizing force.

In case you were wondering, 1441 does NOT authorize us to do what we did. No way.

And you know what? When we act all alone like this (Yes, we have a 'cooaltiion'... a coalition of leaders who realize that they have ot suck up to the US to get more foreign aid and this is a great way to do that...), it makes people in the rest of the world, who UNLIKE most of you actually CARE about stilly little things like "law", MAD. They see it as us flexing our muscles and saying "we won't tolerate anyone who we dislike". What a great message!

So who's next? Ayatollah Khameni? Kim Jong Il?

And who else will we snub so effectively? We've already alienated France and Gernany... who's next? Will we turn on Britain on some issue? With Bush here, I wouldn't take any moronic ideas off the table...

That uncertainty -- of this totally unprecedented in US history unilateral use of force on a nation that didn't deserve it -- makes other people angry with us... sure we're the big man on the block, but that doesn't mean that it's alright for us to go string up those varmints! (using words Bush might understand... :) )

The fact that the war is a blatant oil grab in the face of all that is sane in foreign relations just makes a terrible situation truly intolerable.

Of course if you don't care that we have managed to nearly destroy NATO and hurt the UN somewhat, I guess you wouldn't care... of coures that'd be a EXTREMELY shortsighted, isolationist policy to follow, as not caring about what everyone else in the world thinks, while just fine 200 years ago, juuust isn't able to cut it in the modern world...

And is it alright for us to choose who runs which country in the rest of the world with which form of government because we are the strongest and no one can stop us? I DON'T THINK SO! Sure, I hate those dictatorships too, but I feel that following international law (actually FOLLOWING it and letting it work, as opposed to what we've been doing it and fighting it as hard as we can... and getting everyone angry at us -- not exacty the way to get anything you want...