What I don't understand is how much more time we should give. I keep
hearing that over and over and over and over. The Persian Gulf War ended in
1991. Resolutions were passed for Iraq to disarm. It's now 12 years later
and we're still arguing about more time. If Iraq hasn't disarmed by now,
what makes anyone think he will actually do it at all?
---------------------------------------------------------
Gary Paveza, Jr.
Senior Systems Administrator
(302) 252-4831 - phone
(302) 377-1516 - cell
-----Original Message-----
From: Wirt Atmar [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 2:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: A powerful argument for war with Iraq
The following opinion piece is from today's NY Times. It was written
by Jose
Ramos-Horta, the 1996 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and current
foreign
minister of East TImor:
=======================================
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
War for Peace? It Worked in My Country
By JOSE RAMOS-HORTA
DILI, East Timor
I often find myself counting how many of us are left in this world.
One
recent morning my two surviving brothers and I had coffee together.
And I
found myself counting again. We were seven brothers and five
sisters, another
large family in this tiny Catholic country.
One brother died when he was a baby. Antonio, our oldest brother,
died in
1992 of lack of medical care. Three other siblings were murdered in
our
country's long conflict with Indonesia. One, a younger sister, Maria
Ortencia, died on Dec. 19, 1978, killed by a rocket fired from a
OV-10 Bronco
aircraft, which the United States had sold to Indonesia. She was
buried on a
majestic mountaintop and her grave was tended by the humble people
of the
area for 20 years.
Early in September of last year, I went through the heart-wrenching
process
of unearthing the improvised grave of our sister, whom I last saw
when she
was 18. As her body was exhumed, I noticed that the back of her head
and one
side of her face had been blown off. She must have died instantly.
We
reburied our sister in the cemetery in the capital, Dili. Two other
siblings
who were killed, our brothers Nuno and Guilherme, were executed by
Indonesian
soldiers in 1977. With little information on the area where they
were killed
and disposed of, we have no hope of recovering their bodies for a
dignified
burial.
There is hardly a family in my country that has not lost a loved
one. Many
families were entirely wiped out during the decades of occupation by
Indonesia and the war of resistance against it. The United States
and other
Western nations contributed to this tragedy. Some bear a direct
responsibility because they helped Indonesia by providing military
aid.
Others were accomplices through indifference and silence. But all
redeemed
themselves. In 1999, a global peacekeeping force helped East Timor
secure its
independence and protect its people. It is now a free nation.
But I still acutely remember the suffering and misery brought about
by war.
It would certainly be a better world if war were not necessary. Yet
I also
remember the desperation and anger I felt when the rest of the world
chose to
ignore the tragedy that was drowning my people. We begged a foreign
power to
free us from oppression, by force if necessary.
So I follow with some consternation the debate on Iraq in the United
Nations
Security Council and in NATO. I am unimpressed by the grandstanding
of
certain European leaders. Their actions undermine the only truly
effective
means of pressure on the Iraqi dictator: the threat of the use of
force.
Critics of the United States give no credit to the Bush
administration's
aggressive strategy, even though it is the real reason that Iraq has
allowed
weapons inspectors to return and why Baghdad is cooperating a bit
more, if it
indeed is at all.
The antiwar demonstrations are truly noble. I know that differences
of
opinion and public debate over issues like war and peace are vital.
We enjoy
the right to demonstrate and express opinions today because East
Timor is an
independent democracy - something we didn't have during a 25-year
reign of
terror. Fortunately for all of us, the age of globalization has
meant that
citizens have a greater say in almost every major issue.
But if the antiwar movement dissuades the United States and its
allies from
going to war with Iraq, it will have contributed to the peace of the
dead.
Saddam Hussein will emerge victorious and ever more defiant. What
has been
accomplished so far will unravel. Containment is doomed to fail. We
cannot
forget that despots protected by their own elaborate security
apparatus are
still able to make decisions.
Saddam Hussein has dragged his people into at least two wars. He has
used
chemical weapons on them. He has killed hundreds of thousands of
people and
tortured and oppressed countless others. So why, in all of these
demonstrations, did I not see one single banner or hear one speech
calling
for the end of human rights abuses in Iraq, the removal of the
dictator and
freedom for the Iraqis and the Kurdish people? If we are going to
demonstrate
and exert pressure, shouldn't it be focused on the real villain,
with the
goal of getting him to surrender his weapons of mass destruction and
resign
from power? To neglect this reality, in favor of simplistic and
irrational
anti-Americanism, is obfuscating the true debate on war and peace.
I agree that the Bush administration must give more time to the
weapons
inspectors to fulfill their mandate. The United States is an
unchallenged
world power and will survive its enemies. It can afford to be a
little more
patient. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations,
has proved
himself to be a strong mediator and no friend of dictators. He and a
group of
world leaders should use this time to persuade Saddam Hussein to
resign and
go into exile. In turn, Saddam Hussein could be credited with
preventing
another war and sparing his people. But even this approach will not
work
without the continued threat of force.
Abandoning such a threat would be perilous. Yes, the antiwar
movement would
be able to claim its own victory in preventing a war. But it would
have to
accept that it also helped keep a ruthless dictator in power and
explain
itself to the tens of thousands of his victims.
History has shown that the use of force is often the necessary price
of
liberation. A respected Kosovar intellectual once told me how he
felt when
the world finally interceded in his country: "I am a pacifist. But I
was
happy, I felt liberated, when I saw NATO bombs falling."
=======================================
Wirt Atmar
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