Ha! Ha! You mirror my thoughts, Bobert.

troll - Okay, here's why I differ with you on this one. You assume there is good reason for the USA to attack Iraq in the first place. I don't. You assume there are good reasons for the USA to consider Israel its ally. I don't.

I consider Israel to be a free agent, pursuing a really extraordinary apartheid type of policy, and dominating a significant area of the planet by maintaining an elite military force and by committing terrorism with that military force. (Israel is also, of course, suffering under terrorist attacks from people as malicious and unforgiving as themselves...but not as powerful. They and their Muslim enemies are mutually to blame for the situation. The West should support neither one of them in their acts of violence on each other.)

I consider Saddam to be another free agent, trying to dominate certain parts of the same area by somewhat similar means, but failing miserably, due to his own lack of realism, expertise, and various other factors.

I consider Iraq to be no danger at all to the USA. I consider them to be a minor danger to Israel, which could itself destroy Saddam's military without ANY help from the USA.

I consider both the Iraqui and the Israeli governments to be criminally irresponsible regimes. I see no particular reason for the USA to either befriend or attack either one of them...but simply do its best to restrain them from further criminal acts and not arm or help either one of them.

I don't believe the USA has plans to attack Iraq because of a desire to help or protect ANYONE. I believe that the USA has such plans because it wishes to make strategic gains. What exactly those gains are, I'm not sure...it could be a variety of reasons that are behind it, and many possible ones have already been discussed on this thread.

The reason you don't see much about persecution of the Roma on the news media (or about some wars in Africa) is probably this: the powers that be in the West (who own the news media) have decided that it is not particularly to their benefit in any way to use that story to work up a big public reaction...at this time. And the commercial advertisers who finance the media don't consider it a "sexy" story! If at some time that changes, then maybe we'll have a crisis over the Roma. If so, it will not be to benefit the Roma, but to further the plans of some very rich people and make them richer.

Our politicians and our media are practicing a game of smoke and mirrors with a hidden agenda. The game is designed to fool the public and get them to support actions which they would not support if they knew the whole story.

So, you take this effort against Iraq seriously, and I don't. I think it's a game with hidden objectives. It will hurt many innocent people, and for no good reason whatsoever.

- LH