Quote:
Originally Posted by Cookie Parker
Let me try a different tack, Smitty.
You come from a position that this war is legal and honorable and everyone should support it. You use the White House to reference its goodness..the white house that houses the president who violated the order from congress on his ability to use force and who has abused the constitution by being there still. He violated international law on torture...laws which our consitution states he must abide by...
So, you have created a totally false argument here...a strawman..you set up on a faulty premise and then knock it down with a lack of credible sources...let me start a better thread which is actually a discussion topic..
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1) Myth: Iraq is an illegal war.
The Senate voted 77 to 23 for a joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq. Among those who voted yea were 29 Democrats. Only 21 democrats voted against the bill in the Senate. The 29 senators that did vote for the bill include Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, John Edwards, and John Kerry. The House on the other hand, voted 296 to 133 for the joint resolution. Among house members that voted were 81 democrats. However 126 of the democrats in the House did in fact vote “Nay”. Among those who voted “Yea” was Jack Murtha. The bill passed in both the House and the Senate through the process that Americans call democracy. As if a 70% vote by congress wasn’t enough, the UN and the UK along with others also backed our invasion.
So how could the Iraq war be illegal? Why is the same party that advocated regime change in Iraq during the Clinton administration against it now? Many Liberals ask “How could we have invaded a sovereign nation?” A sovereign nation is by definition a government free from external control. Iraq’s sovereignty was stripped in 1991 following its defeat in the U.S.-led, UN sanctioned war, which liberated Kuwait from Saddam. For the next 12 years, the UN controlled Iraq’s oil wealth, trade and territory.
Here are reasons why the Iraq war was justified.
1) Saddam refused to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors so they wouldn’t have been able to find Weapons of Mass Destruction even if they were there.
Security Council Resolutions Concerning Iraq
2) Saddam stood in defiance of 16 subsequent U.N. Security Council resolutions mandated by the 1991 cease fire agreement. This alone is enough to justify war with Iraq.
Saddam Hussein's Defiance of United Nations Resolutions
3) Saddam was a ruthless dictator who murdered and tortured millions of his own people.
Crimes of Saddam Hussein
4) Congress overwhelmingly voted for the war in Iraq with the support of the UN.
Iraq Never Complied with S.C.R. 687
Iraq, in 12 years, never complied with the terms of S.C.R. 687. Specifically, Iraq:
• Never fully disclosed the types, locations, and amounts of its chemical, biological, missile, and nuclear weapons and facilities
• Hid the prohibited weapons
• Obstructed and engaged in espionage upon the UNSCOM inspectors, finally expelling them.
• Continued to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons
• Developed and deployed ballistic missiles with ranges in excess of 150 km.
• Funded and trained Palestinian terrorists
• Refused to cooperate with the Red Cross and surrender hostages, prisoners, and property taken during its invasion of Kuwait
http://www.citizensoldier.org/687.pdf
UNMOVIC Says Iraq has Failed to Comply with 1441
According to Hans Blix Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, as of 27 January 2003, Iraq
• "unlike South Africa, has not come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament demanded of it"
• has cooperated only on access, not on substance
• failed to permit oveflights of inspection sites
• likely encouraged and initiated harassment and demonstrations against Verifiers
• failed to account for 6,500 chemical warfare bombs
• moved and stored chemical rocket warheads into a new bunker in the last few years when it should not have had such weapons
• failed to account for several thousand chemical rockets
• probably misled about converting VX nerve agent into weapons
• failed to account for anthrax it possessed
• imported banned items, including 300 rocket engines
• stored chlorine gas precursor discovered by the Verifiers
• concealed information required to be disclosed in private homes
• failed to make a complete and accurate disclosure as required simply to begin the Verification process
http://www.citizensoldier.org/1441.pdf
Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter Article 51
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Charter of the United Nations
Iraq a Sovereign nation?
Sovereign: a government free from external control.
• The UN established No Fly Zones set up to protect the Kurdish population. Some zones eventually became a No Venture Zone for Saddam enabling a more or less autonomous existence for the Kurds.
• Imports and exports had to be approved by the UN.
• The UN scooped up nearly half of the proceeds from Iraq’s oil sales to fund its own operations and to pay for reparations for the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam.
Conclusion: The U.S. efforts under Bush will bring, not restore sovereignty to Iraq
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." Ronald Reagan 
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