Larry Cable wrote:
Wilko wrote:
If there were U.S. advisors at the scene of the slaughter, then you
definately should take responsibility. Just standing around doing
nothing when people are being tortured or murdered means that you're
involved as well. It's not as if these so called advisors aren't a party
in a war, even if their designation seems to point in another direction..
Then NATO and the European community is responsible for the ethnic cleansing of
the Serbian Population from Croatia and the atrocities committed by the
Croatians?
The European community didn't do anything to stop that action, which is
directly responsible for the debacle that followed in the Balkans.
The EU had European advisors standing around who were supporting the
parties doing the ethnic cleansing?
Personally I think the EU and NATO were at least partially responsible
for the situation in the Balkans for waiting so long before acting, but
that's not nearly the same as getting directly involved in the conflict
with so called advisors supporting one of the parties carrying out
atrocities...
Often these so called advisors are in
effect leading these groups of foreign troops and if these troops don't
work on the U.S. orders (direct or indirect), and the group will lose
all (material, financial and direct military) support from the U.S
I don't see that in Afganistan. The local Militias had a command structure
already in place and were by all non secret accounts pretty independent.
Support does not mean control. While the US has leverage with these groups,
that does not mean day to day control of the complete infrastructure.
Several documentaries prove the opposite: small groups of U.S. special
forces and CIA leading big groups of Afgan militia. The militia
obviously followed the U.S. orders in each case.
One is the documentary about the slaughter inside the fortress, that
doubled as prison for hundreds of Taliban troops, the other that I can
remember seeing is about a group of afghan militia lead by U.S. special
forces raiding suspected opium dealers, suspected Taliban members and
looking for weapon caches (sp?).
Often in War you are forced to choose Allies that you would have perferred not
to deal with in Peace. Stalin in WWII (or the French :^)) for example. And that
is what the current situation is, whether you want to recognize that or not, a
War. Even the best of the local Middle Eastern governments are despotic and
oppressive, so what real choices are available?
Although I agree that sometimes there is a need to ally with rather
unlikely parties, one should try to look at the future consequences. The
U.S. support of the Mudjahedeen in Afghanistan has direct negative
effects on the U.S. troops there now.
Allying yourself with nations that are having shaky governments doing
all kinds of despicable things, for the sole reason of invading another
sovereign nation where despicable acts are being carried out, but where
you don't have any business, is plain wrong twice.
In reality, the Terrorist have little protection under either international law
or the Geneva Convention. While the Taliban would fall under the protection of
the Convention, there is nothing in it that would prevent you from executing
members of Al Quada whenever you captured one.
So what are all of those Taliban *and* civilian prisoners in Guantanamo
doing there, being tortured, not being allowed legal aid, not being
given a reason for being held there?
If the U.S. handles prisoners like that, then what reason does the U.S.
have to point a finger at others who abuse prisoners? What makes the
U.S. occupation forces any better than Saddam?
How do you know that these people are innocent? I think that is an assumption
that is a stretch in a combat zone.
So far the proof of guilt has to be proven by the people holding them.
As has been said time and again now, most of the people that were held
in that Iraqi prison so far have been allowed to go free because they
didn't have any reason to keep them there.
That means that those people were innocent, but they were tortured
anyway... If you've seen the methods that are being used by U.S. troops
to extract people for interrogation, it should come as no surprise that
many if not most of the people that are being put in prison are innocent.
The U.S. government has been using double standards and strong arm
tactics for quite some time now, but I'm surprised that it takes so long
for the limited international support for this behaviour to fall apa
Yet you didn't seem to mind when NATO
intervened in the Balkans without UN support and the oppositions of most of
Slavic Europe.
If you remember my stance with regard to Kosovo, I wasn't for that
action at all. I also think that NATO and the UN shouldn't have
intervened as haphazardly as it did in the other countries in the balkans.
Personally, my opinion of it is that Continental Europe would like to sit back
and let the US and the Brits do all the dirty work and except the benefits of
that effort, while point at how aweful our behavior is while do it.
I would prefer to see the U.S. be completely disarmed, because most of
the wars that were started by those that country in the last couple of
decades have had little or no positive effects. In the other scnerio's
where advisors, money and/or weapons have been sent, it usually only
helped to further escalate a situation or cause serious backlashes to
the U.S. and the rest of the world as a result.
The U.S. is not the world's police force, no matter how much it seem to
like to think that it has that role sometimes. It's maybe the world's
vigilante, with a very skewed look at who does something wrong and who
doesn't. The double standards by which the U.S. operates and the gross
neglect of international law and conventions makes the U.S. one of the
biggest hindrances to world peace. If there was a real world's police
force, it should round up the U.S. administration and put them before
the international court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and
ignoring international law and conventions.
Alas, we don't have such an organization. The U.N. was ignored and
abused by the U.S. and other countries, and I don't see another
organization with enough power come to life anytime soon.
--
Wilko van den Bergh Wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.
http://wilko.webzone.ru/