More on my political debate about Iraq with Peter.

You know, you could be right. I am so obsessed about the Bush
politicking, subverting the Constitution, ignoring international
agreements, that I dismiss that I would prefer Saddam gone too.

However, I disagree with you about North Korea in that I think North
Korea is more ruthless and aggressive. North Korea is in violation of
similar agreements. The suffering of the North Korean people is much
worse. The only problem I see with North Korea is that they are a
many times tougher and more dangerous opponent with a nearby highly
populated target. Your position on taking on Saddam first I do agree
with and we are without a cause for military action, as opposed to
other actions, against North Korea.

There is some evidence that oil is the issue, but it is not totally
conclusive. I have a number of links but I don't want to look them
up - mainly because I don't have a good search engine for my blog
archives. There is enough evidence for me to think it is likely.

Pax Americana refers to the doctrine of an expanded military and
expanded worldwide bases to support an aggressive unilateral military
and foreign policy that permits no large or small potential challenges to the
United States. I believe as a corollary it expands the power of the
executive branch and places security over civil liberties. I think
that is the wrong direction for our country.

KPFT has undergone a deeply radical revolution recently. They cannot
even agree if they want to be associated with.presenting opposing
views. For many programs I think I am now too "liberal" for them and
not "radical" enough.

Legally, we are not the enforcers of the truce in Iraq, the Security
Council is. Practically, we have been. I see Bush ignore the
legalities as part of the rewriting of American foreign policy in
favor of an Imperial doctrine. I was a reluctant supporter of the
first Gulf War because Bush the first also wasn't following a good
process - Iraq had indicated it would move out without fighting --
but thought the principal of preventing invasions or takeovers of
another country was correct. This time we are the ones invading.

I have decided to give up actively opposing the war in Iraq, just
limiting myself to saying this is a very wrong "process", to
concentrate on trying to oppose Imperialistic tendencies at home. I
also feel it is a done deal, Bush will do whatever he wants, when he
wants as Congress has given him that authority.