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MONDAY January 26, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 24, 2003 Declining civility evident in angry rhetoric By David Churchman Ashland The letter from Noreen Hulteen (Daily Tidings 16 December 2003) contained more anger than fact. "Illegal war?" The President requested and the Congress approved. The UN charter does not trump a nation's right to declare war. Iraqi foreign minister Zebari recently took the UN to task for failing to rescue his people from Saddam. "Steal his oil fields?" The US is not taking Iraqi oil; rather it is spending billions to help rebuild the country. Under Saddam, oil was used largely to finance palaces and purchase weapons. "100,000 deaths among Iraqis." Nobody knows, but sober estimates are on the order of 20,000 military and civilian fatalities to date. The first reports from Gulf War I reported 100,000 deaths were later reduced to 10,000 or 15,000. "We seem to have killed more Iraqis than [Saddam] did." Sadaam killed 250,000 Iraqis putting down the 1991 revolt, gassed 30,000 in 1983-1988, and. 50-100,000 Kurds in 1987-1988. He is responsible for about 800,000 deaths due to preventable malnutrition and disease. The total is much higher than Iraqi civilian and military deaths in 2003. "Iraq was a "relatively free secular government." Sadaam's regime was "relatively free?" Relative to what: North Korea? "Iraq is becoming a theocratic (Shiite) totally autocratic regime." Mr. Sistani is a threat but this assumes at-large voting and an unlikely unity among Shi'a. Germany and Japan were occupied for years after World War II before they had functioning democracies. "National debt so huge our great grandchildren will be repaying it." In historical terms, the national debt is about the same percentage of GDP it has been since 1920, and according to most economists is not at alarming levels. "This mess Bush has created:" This is too vague to know what "mess" is meant. Mr. Hussein, not Mr. Bush, threatened the world's oil supply by attacking Kuwait. He is credibly suspected of having financed and encouraged much Arab terrorism, which began with the Palestinian hijackings of three planes in September 1970. The 1980s saw bombings of three US Embassies and the bombing of Pan Am 103. The 1990s saw two attacks on the World Trade Center, two bombings of bases in Saudi Arabia, attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and the attack on the U.S. Cole. The escalation in number, scope and scale is apparent, and given the possibility of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction, should be alarming. Those who blame the victim should read the Arab-authored Arab Human Development Report, (Fergany, Nader, 2002. New York: United Nations Development Program.), which focuses on Arab failings. The combined GDP of all 22 Arab nations is less than Spain's, which has a seventh its population. Average income is a seventh the OECD average. The population is doubling seven times faster than income. Investment in research and development is one-seventh the world average. A quarter of the population is illiterate. With three partial exceptions, the media is state-controlled. The political leadership is authoritarian, corrupt, and unrepresentative. The Bush administration has made mistakes in running this war (e.g., failure to enlist Iraqis from the beginning, reflecting in-fighting between State and Defense) and has encountered unexpected developments that are obvious with hindsight but hard to find among criticisms made beforehand. Whether or not WMDs ever are found, the consensus when the decision was made was that they did exist. Calling an American president "fascist" reflects ignorance of fascism, over-the-top rhetoric or both. Disagreeing with Ms. Hulteen hardly makes an "idiot" of Mr. Lieberman. Ad hominems and falsehoods contribute little to the debate and much to the declining civility from which the polity suffers. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams