MORAL EQUIVALENCY
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James Joyner | Wednesday, April 2, 2003 |
Ralph Peters lists some bad stuff done by Saddam’s regime:
* Used their own people as human shields in countless instances.* Engaged in acts of genocide against Shi’a Muslims in the south of Iraq.
* Forced Iraqi civilians to take up arms at gunpoint.
* Executed Iraqi civilians on the spot for any suspicion of disloyalty or even indifference.
* Cut off food and water to Shi’a Muslim urban populations.
* Used the most sacred shrines of Iraq’s Shi’as as military strongpoints and arms caches.
* Used hospitals as military staging areas, fighting positions and arms storage depots.
* Took Iraqi family members, including children, hostage.
* Executed allied POWs in cold blood, while abusing others.
* Prevented the International Red Cross or Red Crescent from visiting allied soldiers taken as POWs.
* Fought in civilian clothes, in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War.
* Employed false surrenders to lure allied troops into ambushes, in violation of the same.
* Committed multiple acts of terrorism against Iraqi civilians and coalition forces.
* Forced unwilling soldiers to attack allied forces by executing some and driving the others forward at machine-gun point - far from patriotic resistance, this is the mass murder of Iraqis by Iraqis.
* Attempted to create an ecological and economic catastrophe in Iraq’s Shi’a and Kurdish regions by rigging oil fields for demolition.
* Attempted to prevent relief supplies from reaching Iraqi civilians.
* Welcomed and harbored terrorists from abroad.
* Took practical steps to prepare Iraqi troops for the use of chemical weapons against allied forces.
If only we’d given inspections more time. . .
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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