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to be convinced of the danger or not,is a opinion based argument,i think.can anyone bring me facts that we are in good and neighborly terms with saddam,as is surmised?of coarse my objective is not to convince anyone either way,but just to clarify.

these are the dry facts that shape my opinion.
november 8,2002 U.N.resolution 1441 stating "serious consequences"
if saddam should not comply with inspectors,and disarm.

jan 16,2003 .12 chemical warheads found by u.n. inspectors.

recently,a head of the u.n.inspector team,mohamed elbaradie,said that there was not complete cooperation,as was needed.look back to 1998,when the inspectors packed up there gear.i wonder why.they can send inspectors like ants on a hill,and the most diabolical weaponry could be easily shuttled elsewere.....

i wonder if the 25,000 iraqis in the north ever saw it coming.about that i would like to use some solomon."and i returned and contemplated all acts
of oppression committed beneath the sun.behold!the tears of the oppressed,with none to comfort them,and their oppressors have the power-with none to comfort them"~ecclesiastes 4.1.

saddam,with much blood on his hands,needs comforting.i wonder what is running through his head right now...?

"if a snake bites because it was not charmed,then there is no advantage to the charmers art." ~ibid.10.11.

i respect the opinion that there is no convincable threat,yet i dont see the fact.thats ok.perhaps it is a mutual thing,which would be perfection.and we have the freedom to express these differances,passionately.yet one makes not lessened,or bettered.as is,the objective mind will see.

"futility of futility!all is futile!...all words are wearying,one becomes speachless." ~ibid.

and to close with l.c.
"O´ the wind ,the wind is blowing,through the graves the wind is blowing,freedom soon to come.then we will rise from the shadows."

salutê
elazar andrew please give another hint!

Andrew ~ Hitler? General MacArthur?

"all words are wearysome,one becomes speechless"

Andrew,
I don't know the answer to your poem...but here is mine. You really should know this one....it's from your neck of woods. I believe it is about some ancient chess pieces found on the scottish shore or something like that. Who is the singer/songwriter ? He is Scottish.




From ship to shining shore
Out of an age when time was young
Across the silver ocean's floor
Their endless battle has begun



CHORUS
And they burn upon the open hand blinding all who see
They feast upon the desert land marching on
They burn upon the open hand blinding all who see
They feast upon the desert land
Marching, marching, marching mystery



She holds her weary head
Her heavy horsemen stand alone
It's for the living and the dead
To search their fortune far from home

CHORUS


There is majesty, there is tragedy all in it's place
Rank and file ever turning and moving in space


On paths of black and gold
They come with tales too dark to speak
But the fascination holds
Compels us on to search and seek

CHORUS

I have to vote with Elizabeth. I think she has nailed the truth of this movement toward war. The Bush administration is dressing their plans in the garments of liberating the Iraqis and removing the threat to peace that Saddam represents. It seems to me that the USA is the biggest threat to peace in the world right now. We seem to feel that we can act with impunity, which perhaps we can. However we cannot hope to act without consequences. The Iraqis, current victims of Saddam's brutality, will scarcely thank us as the bombs level their homes and kill their children. Still war may be necessary, but not a war and a peace dictated by one power clique within one country. What we do with the peace will determine what kind of world we leave for our children. A hostile world mistrustful of American empire or a world where we join the other nations who are working for peace and justice. We are at a crossroads and I pray we take the right path.

We can not ensure peace by making war. We cannot become the very thing we accuse Saddam of being, a murderer of innocents. We cannot deal justice by creating new victims. War is a failure of reasonable people to find a reasonable solution. As long as there is shred of hope we are moving towards a peaceful settlement, lets keep chained the dogs of war.

i am sickened by the idea of america targeting innocents.i am sickened by the idea of america pining for power and frothing like rabid dogs.if you want to stick your head in the sand do so if it is your fancy.hate america if it is your fancy.you are not the scorned one,excersizer of free speach.

saddam is quite a sensible and peaceloving man,with much respect for human life.a posterchild for peace,quite frankly.if we cant aquire a peace,we must have failed,not him.he is rather harmless,as much as i can tell.prove me otherwise.prove me that i am in danger at this very moment,if any war is to be justified.its all a fabrication,an agenda.

"all words are wearysome,one becomes speachless."

salutê(cheers in italian)
elazar

as i air myself out,and take cold shower,life gos on.whatever may be.
leonards voice sooths me,lulling me to serenity,and love for you.

salutê
elazar

In reply to Elazar, Elizabeth, Kush and others who have scrolled the screen on this string, I will give you some more clues:
1. The author was fluent in French.
2. French was not his mother -tongue.
3. The verses were written in a different language from his mother-tongue.
4. He was a great admirer of the principles behind the "American Declaration of Independence".
5. In some ways, he found Franklin D. Roosvelt a kindred spirit.
6. He died in 1969.
7. I have never regarded him as a poet until I read his work.
8. Everybody of my age knows his name.

and that's not Andrew!!

How about papa Ho Chi Minh?

Robert, you've got it.
It's thanks to Margaret that I received a copy of his prison diaries, written between 1942 and 1943, while imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek's police in over 30 jails in South China. It is not a diary in the Western sense; for it consists of 115 verses: quatrains and Tang poems in the classical Chinese style. He had to write it in Chinese, as Vietnamese would draw attention to his captors. All the verses were written on bits of rice-paper, and smuggled out of jails.
The English translation was published in the U.S.A. in 1971.

Here's another, which is difficult to translate from Mandarin Chinese into English ( as they all are)...


Goodbye To a Tooth

You are hard and proud, my friend,
not soft and long like the tongue:
together we have shared bitterness and sweetness,
but now you must go west while I go east.



Andrew.

elazar,

Why don't you choose a side and stick with it? Or is this your definition of irony?

Cordially.

eeey

"Goodbye To A Tooth"........very personal one's body becomes in confinement.

Robert,

"...the USA is the biggest threat to peace in the world right now..." is an Orwellian canard. It's been used by totalitarians the world over for the last 58 years. Said usually after murdering millions of their own countrymen.

And if the USA is the biggest threat to peace in the world right now does that mean Great Britain is the second biggest threat to peace in the world right now?

Just wondering.


eeey

P.S. By the way, Saddam Hussein is not a reasonable man.

Lizzytysh,

Congratulations! You almost got it right.

Hitler...Ho Chi Minh...Ho Chi Minh...Hitler...


eeey

eeey,
yes i was attempting irony,while trying desperately to see the other point of veiw.i failed.i came to realize that its useless.but im glad i got to see other peoples prospectives on this issue.open,free dialog is priceless.

salutê
elazar