http://www.drudgereport.com/md323.htm

1) Women in service; 2) freedom of press; and 3) the nature of Islam.

“Is Islam a Religion of Peace?”

“Does Islam Promote and Safeguard Sound Moral Values?”

“Does Islam Respect Human Rights?”

“Does Islam Respect Woman?”

“Is Islam Compatible with Liberal Democracy?”

“Can Islam Be Secularized and Made Compatible with the Western Pluralistic Framework?”

“Can Science and Culture Flourish under Islam?”

“Is Islam Tolerant of Non-Muslims?”

“Does the West Really Have Nothing to Fear from Islam?”

"I quote others only the better to express myself."

"I quote others only the better to express myself."

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Greg, most of the people in Iraq are Muslim… including most of the Iraqi regime.

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This country is dominated by Shi'ite Muslims (59.1%) and Sunni Muslims (36.1%). The Christian population is 3.3% with Catholics making up the majority.

"I quote others only the better to express myself."

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As far as the video goes, I think it should be shown, or at least offered on-line to view. It will show the nay-sayers what they wish to protect by their protests, number one. And number two; it will strengthen the resolve of those who wish to liberate the average folk of Iraq from this horrible, horrible regime.

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"I quote others only the better to express myself."

A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present.

Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality."

Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists."

"Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

"I quote others only the better to express myself."

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Anyhow, the point is I have no idea what Tarek Aziz believes…

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…Saddam gassed Iranian soldiers and civilians. Between 1984 and 1988, six separate teams of U. N. investigators documented instances of Iraq using chemical weapons on Iranians. In 1988, Iraq’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, openly admitted that poison gas was enshrined in official war policy. (Kaplan & Kristol, The War over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission, p. 18)

SNOW: You're a Christian. George W. Bush is a Christian. He often talks about the importance of his religion. Christian to Christian, what would you tell him?

AZIZ: He's a hypocrite, because the Christian, a true Christian would not be a war monger, would not lead — would not push for the destruction of countries and the killing of people. A true Christian would not send tens of thousands of his own young men and women to be killed in a war which does not serve the real interests of the United States as a peaceful-loving nation and which is contrary to the basics of the Christian faith. That's why the Church in the United States is against the war.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72956,00.html

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An estimated 120,000 Chaldeans live in and around Detroit, and 60,000 more — Arabs and Kurds as well as Chaldeans — came in two waves: one after the rise to power of Saddam in 1979 and another after the 1991 Gulf war and the ensuing failed uprisings.

They danced in the aisles when Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz showed up in Dearborn to address them last month.

"He did not expect that. The people were so glad that he came here to talk to us about ending the regime in Iraq" said Mr. Faik, who is part of a national group of Iraqis, called the Iraqi Forum for Democracy, who advocate the removal of Saddam.

Last week, a coalition of mostly Detroit area Iraqis, Muslim and Christian, sent a letter to Miss Rice, thanking her for inviting them to the White House and stressing that "those who are marching for 'peace and justice' in the name of the Iraqi people are unwittingly supporting a totalitarian dictator who promotes terrorism."

"These people, these so-called peace people who support human rights, have never been there for the people of Iraq," said Salam Jafar, a 52-year-old physician, who left Iraq in 1980.

He sits in a suburban Ann Arbor kitchen with several other Iraqi Muslims, gulping coffee and talking about siblings, parents and children who were taken in Saddam-ordered campaigns of ethnic cleansing and brutal suppression of uprisings.

All four of the men, in their 40s and 50s, have made the United States home, raising families, paying mortgages and hoping for the end of the Saddam era so relatives in Iraq can be free to visit and vice versa.

Until now, anti-Saddam statements from Iraqis in the U.S. were rare, they all conceded; Saddam has spies among them in Detroit's Middle Eastern community.

"People are now encouraged by this administration, and we are tired of not being able to tell the truth," Dr. Jafar said, risking retribution against family members in Iraq.

"And we got tired of all those stories from Iraq, where the people tell the news people that they don't want war," he added. "Of course they say that. There are [government police] right there next to them. To tell the truth could mean death."

http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/cmar/11_saddam.html

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Much love Electra, and yes, the Hague.




Edited by - SeanG on 03/26/2003 10:08:14 PM

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Fyodor, thank you for your opinion, I too believe it should be shown.


I do want to offer a distinction though between the soldiers who are POW’s and the Iraqi citizen who may have been caught in the crossfire. America is going out of its way to not incur civilian deaths. We are doing so in ways that are in accord with the Geneva Convention. We even offer the surrender of troops and instead of taking them into custody, we trust they want to be free so much that we tell them to go back to their homes and wait for the regime to be displaced. And when we have the prisoners in custody, we give them medical attention and food, etc.

The distinction lies in the execution (we know this because of the neatly placed bullet holes in our troops foreheads) of the POW’s once they were subdued and in custody. This is the video that needs to be shown with the distinction that we are fighting a war with ethics involved; whereas the other side is not. Some may say – unfortunately – that a war cannot be fought with ethics, because, war, as we know it, is un-ethical to begin with. I disagree, but I can do so respectfully. Knowing that in America, those who do disagree aren’t dragged kicking and screaming to military sites (whole families) in order to be human shields. Or be thrown into plastic shredders or given acid baths, and the like. - SeanG!

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http://www.arabia.com/pina/article/english/0,14183,325819,00.html

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Okay, what would be the purpose of showing innocent Iraqi casualties? I mean… everyone knows war inevitably involves innocence being stricken down, right? However, showing the POW video informs people (reminds people) as to why we are fighting Iraq in the first place, it is a totalitarian state with a despot for a ruler.

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Fyodor, you said: “…the war is going to be covered it should be covered on all the facts not just some.” What facts? That the U.S. intentionally bombed civilians? Please! Al-Jazeera says that the bombing of the twin towers was a Jewish conspiracy, and that thousands of Jews left prior to the attack (or didn’t show up to work). Are these facts? Should they be shown in a free press environment? Not at all, it is propaganda with a political end in sight – that is, to foment anti-Americanism. They are lies Fyodor... our soldiers being shot in the groin (yes, blowing a man's balls off for the fun of it while he is alive, in front of fellow Marines [friends]) and forehead while in custody, and playing with the dead bodies like dolls, is sick!!! This isn’t a lie, and it is telling it like it is without spin. Saying we are massacring civilians on purpose is a lie, and is putting a giant spin on the telling of the facts.


Al Jazeera should be taken out in my humble opinion!

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Marines search Iraqi military HQ in Nasiriyah where a sick mural celebrates 9/11.

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But showing civilians being hit by Iraqi ground to air missiles that fall back to earth, or a misguided bomb would accomplish what again? Would it solidify the nation to back our men and go towards quickly ending the war? I don’t think so.

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What could you show that would incriminate us?........But you still haven’t answered what this will accomplish? What does the freedom of press have to do with showing dead civilians caught in the crossfire of war?

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