[Peace-discuss] reconciling Iraq's human rights abuses?

[Margaret E. Kosal]

Stepping back for a moment from rhetoric polarization 


How are others on the left reconciling the documented human rights abuses 
of Saddam Hussein and the Baath party against the people of Iraq (1) with 
the historical sentiments of the left supporting US intervention, whether 
political, economic or with direct action, on behalf of oppressed people(2)?

(1) See Amnesty International, e.g., AI's 2001 report on systematic torture 
of political prisoners
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE140082001?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\IRAQ, 
and Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/reports/world/iraq-pubs.php).

(2) See, e.g., Campaign to End Gender Apartheid 
(http://www.feminist.org/news/pressstory.asp?id=4542) Mavis Leno’s work 
pre-September 11’th to intercede on behalf of Afghan women:  "Take action 
by writing President Clinton, Secretary of State Albright, members of 
Congress, and UN Secretary General Annan. Urge that the U.S. do everything 
in its power to stop gender apartheid and restore the human rights of women 
and girls in Afghanistan"; to Noam Chomsky w/r/t reversing US involvement 
in East Timor (http://www.mojones.com/east_timor/comment/chomsky.html) "the 
US government has played a decisive role in escalating these atrocities and 
can easily act to mitigate or terminate them" to the free Tibet movement 
(http://www.tibetfreedomnow.homestead.com/why.html).  (Go to Z-Net for 
hundreds of more examples.)

If one is an isolationist or a non-interventionist, there is nothing to 
reconcile.
If one is a complete pacifist, there is nothing to reconcile.

i have a number of thoughts but seek to tap the thought processes and 
knowledge here.

Risking overt pendanticism, i want to emphasize this is not a question of 
war versus anti-war, the further estimates of the atrocious effects on 
civilian of a US.initiated war at Iraq, the oil factor nor human rights 
violations committed by the US but more sophisticated than a 60-sec sound 
bite on Nightline or 250 word NY Times essay can/would grapple.

Namaste,
Margaret

Prime example of ‘proof by assertion’:
“Democracies do not wage aggressive wars”  Richard Perle, American 
Enterprise Institute (& DC velociraptor w/r/t US imperialism) on _Meet the 
Press_, 22 February 2003