My source is slashdot; I’m trusting the users’ references…

On NPR:

PETER FREUNDLICH:

All right, let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly. We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored. We’re going to wage war to preserve the UN’s ability to avert war. The paramount principle is that the UN’s word must be taken seriously, and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then by gum, we will. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend. Am I getting this right?

Further, if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq is to vitiate the democracy of the Security Council, then we are honor-bound to do that too, because democracy, as we define it, is too important to be stopped by a little thing like democracy as they define it.

Also, in dealing with a man who brooks no dissension at home, we cannot afford dissension among ourselves. We must speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein’s failure to allow opposing voices to be heard. We are sending our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point that might does not make right, as Saddam Hussein seems to think it does. And we are twisting the arms of the opposition until it agrees to let us oust a regime that twists the arms of the opposition. We cannot leave in power a dictator who ignores his own people. And if our people, and people elsewhere in the world, fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.

Listen. Don’t misunderstand. I think it is a good thing that the members of the Bush administration seem to have been reading Lewis Carroll. I only wish someone had pointed out that “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” are meditations on paradox and puzzle and illogic and on the strangeness of things, not templates for foreign policy. It is amusing for the Mad Hatter to say something like, `We must make war on him because he is a threat to peace,’ but not amusing for someone who actually commands an army to say that.

As a collector of laughable arguments, I’d be enjoying all this were it not for the fact that I know–we all know–that lives are going to be lost in what amounts to a freak, circular reasoning accident.

Bill Maher:

“As of this writing, the most depressing thing about war in Iraq was how easy it was to sell. Shouldn’t it be a little harder than this to sell people a war? … [and]how amazed I was that, of all the lies told by presidents in my lifetime, the one so many people couldn’t get over, and which the media treats as the standard for mendacity, was: ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.’

astounding lies that affected each and every one of us in very real ways: that we were winning the war in Vietnam; that we weren’t trading arms for hostages, and if we were it was a soldier’s duty to lie about it; that global warming and marijuana needed more study before we could consider policy changes about them; that there’d be no new taxes; that Clarence Thomas was the most qualified person a nation of 250 million could find to sit on the Supreme Court…

“All these lies, all these giant, steaming-turd whoppers, and the one that broke the bank was ‘Blow jobs aren’t sex.’ Wow, that’s a stupid country.”

From /. user SatanicPuppy:

I think that if this country was going about it in any way other than as the big bully on the playground, the international community would not be so opposed.

Iraq sucks. No way to pretend otherwise. It would be nice to see someone go in there, oust the facists, and put some sort of populist government in place. Not that that will happen this time; even if we oust the government, we’re just going to put another facist in charge. We’re the US, that’s what we do.

The thing that really bothers me is our attitude about the whole thing, like we have a right to move in there because we “know” he has weapons of mass destruction. This is the most utterly flimsy excuse. We’re not invading India, Pakistan, or N. Korea, are we? We don’t care about anyone else’s weapons. No, its all about the #$^@^#$ oil. The senate wouldn’t let him drill in the arctic national wildlife refuge, and so he’s got to invade something in the middle east.

And the whole terrorism excuse? Dear god! We should be invading the Saudi’s if that was really our point. But, of course it isn’t.

No no, this is W’s war, his chance to get his jollies by acting like his dad. I’d rather have a hunk of spam in the oval office. At least then there would be a chance of ONE good descision coming out of the white house.

If there is any justice in the world this will come back and kick him in the nuts.

Diplomacy is the art of saying, “Nice Doggy” until you can find a rock.

/. user matman:

I think that most people will acknowledge that the removal of Saddam (and other unstable leaders/organizations) is something to be strived for. The decision to take military action towards that goal is not what concerns me. My concern lays in the fact that the current US administration has shown contempt and arrogence when dealing with other nations and has not exhausted oportunities for a non-lethal solution to their problems. Diplomacy was attempted only as a PR mechanism – not as a genuine attempt to involve the rest of the population of the world in important decisions. In this war, the United States is choosing to sacrifice Iraqis towards the goal of liberation/stability; the noble thing to do would be to sacrifice Americans or willing allies, including some Iraqis (lets look at Iraqis killed VS Americans killed).

The United States, being a proponent of democracy, should promote democracy for the world – not just for nations. The United States is a citizen of the world; money and power shouldn’t give it a stronger voice than anyone else. The actions of the United States reminds me of the recent elections in Iraq – a ballot with only one option. The rest of the world shouldn’t be ignored; the rest of the world wants to be involved and respected as citizens of the world. Refusing to acknowledge the value offered by the rest of the world is insulting and alienating. Please, hear us, United States.

For more check out http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/20/038213&mode=thread&tid=99