Revenge

Just hours after Iraq's prime minister-designate promised to unite Iraqis on Saturday, three Shi'ite brothers and two Sunni brothers went out to dinner together.

Gunmen in cars pulled up and shot them dead in plain view of the public, police said. Relatives who washed the bodies for burial said their eyes had been gouged out and hands bound.

"The Shi'ites call for revenge. We call on the government to open the borders so we can cross over and do what we need to do with all Sunnis."

http//news.yahoo.com/...

So the Western idea of "peace and love for everyone" doesn't hold so much weight when countries have vendettas against each other for decades and centuries.  Osama's latest tape, along with Hamas, and the president of Iran all believe Israel should be destroyed, rather than coexisting peacefully.  The Middle East doesn't want to coexist with Israel and the Western world.  Pakistan does not want to coexist with India.    

It's not as simple as believing everyone can just get along and be peaceful, or even inhabit the same land without conflict.  Most conflicts are old disputes over who really has the rights to their territory.  For these countries, their desire is not peace, but the complete eradication of a civilization in order to end further conflict.   

The US may be too young to understand how enemies can carry a centuries old grudge that will never be settled by peace talks or cooperation.   The only "solution" for these countries is total annihilation of a rival country and its civilization.     

>>1
good point. and i say saddam is an efficient, stable ruler whom governed iraq with an extreme approach in the eyes of the western world. indeed he eradicated his enemies in the most brutal ways but he kept his country from going under by promoting westernised education, social interactions etc.

perhaps his brutal reign was suitable for his country, and not everybody cares about "let freedom reign" crap. it works in the states and so there it should stay.

>>2

The same could have been said about Japan before their defeat in WWII? But is Japan not the better because the US let "freedom reign"?

I don't understand that first news article, so they were gunned down in a drive by, but then who stopped and bound them and gouged their eyes out????

Nobody said it was a drive-by. It's possible they stopped, beat the shit out of them, then shot them in plain view. When you want to instill fear in others, nothing beats doing something like this with total impunity.

Also, I quite like the question: was it Saddam who made Iraq the way it is, or did Iraq make Saddam the way he is?

Or did the Iraq-Iran war with assistance from the CIA make Iraq what it is today?