politics

Iraq is an example of a war that disgusts me deeply; regardless of what people think of Saddam, after the sanctions were placed on Iraq demanding that his government cease production of WMDs, he complied; they ceased in 1991 but the sanctions remained. The UN human rights coordinator for Baghdad quit his job to criticized the sanctions as genocide, and his replacement also quit his job saying the same thing, but the sanctions didn't end. When questioned on whether half a million dead children was worth it, Madeleine Albright said yes, they think the price is worth it. Then, when they were accused of producing WMDs before the invasion, they allowed in UN inspectors to prove they weren't producing them, and then when our government refused to accept the findings, they allowed in American inspectors who also said there were no WMDs being produced, and then after Iraq proved they would be unable to effectively fight back in the event of an invasion, we attacked them. Iraq cooperated, again, and again, and again, and not content to merely slaughter a million people through sanctions, we decided we wanted a war to further decimate their population.

Iraq cooperated, and their punishment was mass slaughter. I hope every country we are hostile to never make that mistake again; I hope North Korea (for example) paid close attention and never plays ball.