"Palme D'Or" for Mike Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11&

[kandrathe]

Except they screwed up...

20/20 hindsight. The US didn't know, and had to assume the worst case scenario.

Despite the fact the burden of proof was on OUR side, we simply claimed Iraq could not prove it had disposed of everything (attempting to sleight of hand burden of proof onto Iraq, which would be impossible for the Iraqis to prove even if they had disposed of everything), and thus invaded Iraq even though Afghanistan was still being rebuilt, screwing over not only the soldiers in Afghanistan but also the country, not planning at all for post-war Iraq rebuilding, thus creating a very hostile situation for the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers overseas, plunging us into even more debt (I believe the appropriations bills for Iraq, come to what, over 100 billion already?), and forcing us pretty much to make sure we stay in Iraq until we fix the mess we helped to create.

South Africa dismantled its WMD programs under UN and IAEA supervision. That was the model the UN attempted to follow with Iraq. Iraq was belligerant, and the evidence even Mr. Blix found, indicated that Iraq obviously refused to give up its quest for illegal weapons.

As for the other nations... Well yes they are a threat to regional security and to WMD proliferation, but not the threat to the US in the same way that Iraq was. I think the US is hoping that China will help contain North Korea. North Korea has not expressed any expansionist rhetoric (other than unification with the south), but blackmails the world to supply it with food and energy. Iran, while still controlled by Islamofacists is moderating and I think the US is hopeful that change with come from within Iran. I'm not sure what the Pakistani's want, but perhaps if conditions improved for the people he might become more popular. As popular as the leader of a military hunta can be, I guess.

I like to step away from the myopic nationalist view and look at the forces that are influencing world events. In the US there is a struggle between the liberal movement toward multinationalism surrendering parts of US sovereignty(responsibility) to international entities, and the neo-conservative movement which seeks to keep the US as the worlds only super-power free to act unilaterally. In Europe you have the same type of struggle, between nationalists and unificationists. In Africa, well seemingly chaos, but it seems conflicts are centered around a few factors; AIDS and its destabilization, spreading Islamofacism, and fighting over control of Africa's vast natural resources. The Islamic world is violently torn between forces that are seeking to modernize Islam, and those "Islamofacists" that seek to keep progress rooted in 800 AD, or at least the 1700's in spreading the philosophies of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.