I was doing like many of my fellow Americans were doing this evening. I'm trying to carry on with my life, but I'm staying tuned to CNN to keep an eye on what's going on.

There was on particular segment which focused on a just released poll in several other countries asking if their view of the U.S. was favorable.

Most of the view of the U.S. had slipped from the high to mid range to 25% and lower. Well, ain't that something!

I'm not surprised by it, but I wonder what the opinion of Saddam's Iraq is?

Mind you, this is not a scientific poll, but I am curious what your opinion is?

__________________
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."
- Ian L. Fleming (1908-1964)

H@rd Rock, Just a suggestion, while CNN is pretty good by American standards, you might like what you see at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi.html They are a sound news organization, and you can get a non-American point of view in English. Just a thought.

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Eudaimonia

The BBC is, by far, the best news organization. It never mattered where I travelled, I could always get BBC at the hotels. Even in Kazakhstan you can get BBC. They are pretty "global" in their thinking and coverage.

After a while that tune gets stuck in your head. I can't remember where I was, but once on the station they were talking about how they were selling a CD of the music from the news show.

"CBC" are some other inituals you may want to know of.

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If this so called war screws up the coverage of the NCAA tournament.... I think it is wrong.
If the so called "fighting" stops before the sweet 16 It will be terrific....I just want to enjoy my FreedomFries and FreedomToast in Peace and quite before the next Terrorist urban renewal project in lower Manhattan.

Really How many of the Iraqi Civilians do we really need to kill??As usual it is a bad situation that should just be contained by the UN joint forces not us here in the US dictating our brand of democracy to the unwilling masses.
I personally feel Sadam is evil, but is our answer any better?
What does Bush and the US intelligence know that they haven't told us to make them so gung-ho on this forced democratization of Iraq? What are the concrete objectives of this campaign? And how long will we have to deal with the aftermath of our actions be they right or wrong?

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Sex is a tricky thing best left to professionals.

CNN is nothing but propaganda ladden shi ....... er

All that I can say is that Saddam,personally,compared himself to
Hitler& said that Hitler is his idol! Irish

__________________
Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

Our answer..........after asking the question for X amount of years, is better (to me) than waiting to see how far he will go!!!!!!!

If the Bush administration told "us" everything they knew.........what makes you think that "he" (Saddam) wouldn't find out?

Forced democratization????? Maybe.......just maybe........Saddam never let his people know they had a right to an opinion!!!!! Democracy=Freedom...............If being free is bad......I don't wanna be good!

The aftermath? It might benefit "us" (you included) when we finally rid the world of another tyrant......(lest we forget Hitler)! And I am willing to deal with that aftermath instead of the alternative...........for as long as it takes to help a helpless country in the shadow of a maniac!

*SPECIAL NOTE* This is in no way a personal attack! I have taken some of your opinions (south) and given my personal views to them (major disclaimer)!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Well, I voted for the Hitler/Saddam option, but that only applies to the knob-heads in charge (it isn't JUST Saddam, y'know!!)

The area I work in (Glasgow) Scotland has a very large number of Asylum seekers, who are fleeing from almost unimaginable violence & brutality in their homelands; as a Community based Mental Health nurse, I see a tiny fraction of these people, a large percentage of whom are Iraqui refugees from the time of Desert Storm..... that was 12 (yeh - TWELVE - count 'em folks!!) ago!!

These are just regular folks, who through no real fault of their own, have suffered horrific tortures at the hands of Saddam's henchmen.. and in one case, it is a TORTURER who is seekng Asylum!! THAT'S how bad it is in Iraq, when even the perpetrators of such horrors are running away!!

We have to speak to 99% of these people through interpreters, which isn't easy - but, even so, we can still appreciate just how vile it is to live as an "ordinary" Joe Q Public in Iraq;- you CANNOT voice any opinion other than the official "Party line", otherwise you just "disappear" one day .... some of the people I've met have spent months in jail, being systematically tortured, raped, sodomised (with various devices)... the list goes on.
Eventually they succumb to whatever decrees their captors state; and if they do it well enough, they are (soemtimes!) let go. That's when they manage to escape from their homeland, very often leaving members of their family behind.

This is by no means limited to Iraquis... we see Kosovans, Kurds (from Iraq AND Turkey) Croatians, Indonesians, Sri Lankans... again, the list is almost endless!

I guess what I'm trying to impart to you all is - most Iraquis are NOT the "bad guys" ..... they're just ordinary people, trying to stay alive and as safe as they can, in circumstances most of us can't even imagine.

So, yeah, villify Saddam and all his cronies... but remember the ordinary guys in the street, who clap & cheer (and, yes, fight the U.S./U.K. forces) because NOT TO is to invite a horrible death!! Then, ask yourself.... could YOU say no??

Thanks for putting up with me... I'll go and lie down now!

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Thank you, dm383, for enlightening us, and showing the individual plight of those under Saddam's regime.

Saddam is a bad, bad man, and there are no positives to his continued rule of Iraq. He has shown repeatedly a maniacal stance toward humankind, and it is a shame that the only way he would step down is to be forced to do so through brutal force.

I hope that this war is over soon. It is unfortunate that the cost will be the lives of many good people on both sides. It is imperative to remove Saddam as the ruler of Iraq and stop his escalating evil.

__________________
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."
- Ian L. Fleming (1908-1964)

dm383---I know what you mean.I wish that people could see the
TV show that I saw the other night!It was about one of Saddams
sons.Some of his atrocities,almost make Saddam,look like an angel!It makes you wonder how someone could enjoy,treating
another living thing,that badly.For example,he ONLY enjoys himself,
if he sees blood.Therefore,he only enjoys raping PREGNANT women!He also had something to do with the Olimpics.He would
have atheletes,jump into a vat of sewage,if they had an open
sore.He then enjoyed the sore getting infected. Irish

__________________
Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

Irish- do you know the name of the show or what time and channel it aired on, I would like to see that show.

Back on topic. I know Saddam's Iraq is very low on the 'places to visit' list for me. However, if it is so bad, why are there so many people there serving Saddam? It's not the nice weather making people stay.... what keeps the people serving him? If it is so terrible it seems like the people would resist, not hold him high as a leader.

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-Deno

Deno---I think that it was either the Discover or History channel
The Iraqui(sp?)people back Saddam because they or their
family,are threatened with torture if they don't.They interviewed
a previous Iraq citizen on the radio recently,who had been in this
country for years.He said that when he spoke out before,he got
a phone call,threatening the relatives,that still live there.People
are afraid to speak out,because of possible reprisals! Irish
P.S.I saw the show REAL late at night!Once,when a network cancelled one of my favorite shows,I found the network,on the
web-search.They will awnser,how you can see it!

__________________
Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

I think the following article from UPI will shed some light on this discussion. Note in particular the paragraph about the U.S. protesters that have fled Baghdad.

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AMMAN, Jordan, March 21 (UPI) -- An unintended coalition of U.S. air power and Baghdad taxi drivers kept a potential flood of Iraqi refugees away from the Jordanian border Friday. The U.N. refugee agency and the Jordanian government were expecting a quarter of million people to stream across the border. Jordan is already home for 400,000 Iraqi refugees from the first Gulf War.

U.S. fighter bombers took out the only gas station between Baghdad and the border, a distance of 600 kilometers. The one-camel village of Ramadi was also the only phone booth on the desert road and a Jordanian was killed by the explosion of the gas station while making a call to his parents in Amman to let them know he was on his way home.

At the same time, the few taxi drivers in Baghdad willing to run the risk of making it to the Jordanian border are charging $1,500 per passenger. Very few Iraqis can afford the fare. As a result, only some 300 TCNs (Third Country Nationals) reached the border post since the bombing started. They were mostly Sudanese and Egyptians. There were no Iraqis among them. They had to hump their luggage 1.8 miles across no-man's-land on foot to Al Karama, the first Jordanian outpost. From there, they were bused to the tent city at the Ruwaished refugee camp, 36 miles inside Jordan.

The Sudanese and Egyptian governments agreed to pay for Jordanian Airlines charters to fly their nationals home.

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."

Iran informed the UN refugee agency Friday that it now has 3,000 Iraqi refugees. Syria said its numbers were "insignificant." The picture could change for the worse as the United States steps up the bombing of Baghdad with a "shock and awe" campaign designed to stun and collapse what's left of the regime. Acute food shortages are expected before U.S. troops liberate Baghdad. U.N. officials in the Iraqi capital radioed today that some 500 disadvantaged children were suffering from malnutrition and they were rounding whatever supplies they could find.

Prior to the war, some 700 tanker trucks shuttled daily between both countries. Jordan consumes 12,000 tons of oil a day. All of it comes from Iraq at discounted prices under the U.N. oil-for-food program. Some 2,600 and 1,500 Iraqi tankers have been involved in the overland oil traffic. Movement was down to 140 tankers the day before the bombing started. It stopped abruptly two days ago.

Jordan had made plans for a quick switch to tankers anchored off Aqaba. Qatar had pledged to replace whatever shortfall Jordan experienced.

Jordanians see a good omen in the daily arrival of almost 1,000 white storks. They alight near the Safeway on one of Amman's seven hills, a pit stop on their way from Africa to their east European breeding grounds. About 100,000 storks are expected at the Safeway for the next month, numbers not seen in 10 years, and a sign of ample rain and a good harvest.

The official and private views of some ranking Jordanian officials appear to be diametrically opposed. Officially, they condemn the war and say they are "deeply troubled" about the repercussions of the war on the region, and describe the situation as "critical."

Privately, and not for attribution, they say the United States is developing a new opportunity for the Middle East. Said one former prime minister, "If the U.S. can get a new Iraq to recognize Israel as a quid pro quo for a final Palestinian settlement, others will fall into place -- Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf states. Iran would then have to pull back its military support for Hezbollah."

Another prominent Jordanian voice said that while Iraq has created a rift between America and its allies, and in Europe itself, the Palestine question -- provided President Bush is serious about a settlement roadmap, without either side allowed to nickel and dime it to oblivion -- could be a reconciling factor. Which all sides now need." The official consensus is that the United States can win wars on its own. But it cannot win the peace. A former foreign minister said, "I can only hope that the $10 billion the U.S. now plans to provide Israel will have a geopolitical price tag."

__________________
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."
- Ian L. Fleming (1908-1964)

Deno,

The question of “why are so many people there serving Saddam“ is ultimately difficult to answer to people who have no children, and is obvious to those who do. Why did people help the rulers of the Soviet Union? Why do people help the rulers of the Communist China? Why did people help the rulers of the Third Reich? Why did people help Idi Amin?

People aid and abet evil because they had and have to get by.

If you have a wife and children, it is much, much easier to hold one’s tongue than if you don’t. You drag ‘em out of bed in the morning, wash and feed ‘em, take them to and from school, talk about their day, wrassle and hug ‘em in the evening, feed ‘em again, and then tuck ‘em into bed at night.

One well placed bullet will steal their and your future forever. You can never get ‘em back. Ever.

The bad guys have the guns. You don’t. They often have the food. You don’t. What would you do? I know what I’d do; I’d toe the line.

Do you believe that the average Iraqi holds Saddam Hussein high as a leader. Have you ever spoken to an average Iraqi? They speak Arabic, you know. What you have heard is that 100% of the people who voted in Iraq’s last election voted for Saddam Hussein? Does that seem reasonable to you?

__________________
Eudaimonia