[andyfox]

Sorry if I put words in your mouth. Let me try again.

1) I cannot give you a hard and fast rule as to whether or not I believe in the removal of tyrannical dictators by force. Depends on who the dictator is and what force is involved. I believe one should consider the costs and consequences of action, as well as inaction. During the early Cold War, our government determined that the Soviet Union was ruled by a tyrannical and irrational dictator and that he posed the greatest threat to the world that it had ever seen. Yet they did not decide to remove him by force. They did not launch a preemptive war with the Soviet Union.

2) Globalization is a code word for control of the world's economy by the haves, in particular, us.

3) You metioned Hitler, Saddam, Stalin and Pol Pot in the same question, implying an equivalency. The comparison with Hitler is made with regularity by the "talking heads."

We were told by our government not long ago (and, in fact, one of the chief tellers was Elliott Abrams) that Nicaragua was a totalitarian dungeon, that the thugs we hired and trained to murder people were the moral equivalent of the founding fathers. It was a big lie. Many of our engagements in the postwar (WWII) world were based on supposedly black and white issues that were not as claimed by our leaders.

4) It is one thing to condemn certain governments and quite another to start a preemptive war. We have removed government we didn't like before through clandestine action; for example, to use the Nicaragua example I alluded to above, we did everything we could to make sure we influenced the election to get the Sandanistas out of office, and we were successful.

Now obviously there will not be an election in Iraq that results in Saddam losing. But we have also fomented coups and subverted and destroyed many leaders who we felt, rightly or wrongly, were tyrannical dictators.

5) I don't think it necessarily takes a chicken to recognize an egg. I have never done anything but condemn Saddam Hussein. I have not heard anyone who opposed the upcoming war praise him.