Is your concept of “enough experience of world events” really a valid point? Many of the men and women now involved in the actions in the Gulf will be between the ages of 18 and 25. I trust you believe that those troops have the experience and emotional maturity to cope with the momentous events they are involved in. Strange then that you should think the average eighteen year old who is against the war does not.

As to historical perspective, Belgium has been occupied twice in the last 100 years and the land fought over fiercely. I would imagine ‘historical perspective’ is ingrained into Geforce and his fellow Belgians.

Regards,

kev35

Well I did not want to degenerate into a slanging match, but on this forum and others you can generally guess the age group of participants by there responses. The individual in question has not contributed anything but rhetoric and swearing. Pro war individuals of this age group also do the same (yes they do exist) trotting out slogans about kicking butt etc. Like I said they certainly have a right to an opinion, but when they just trot out tired old slogans or catch phrases (pro or against) because that is all they know then why would anyone take them seriously.
I would have thought that given the reason Belgium was overun the second time was because a maniac was continually appeased and in the end thought everyone was too scared to stop him at the start, would be good enough reason to understand that sometimes diplomacy does not work.

I have seen the old “why now” argument floated today as well. I would ask the same question, but from another angle. Why has it taken so long for someone to mobilise against Saddam the thug. Surely his behaviour over just the past 10 years alone has been enough to warrant efforts to remove him from the world stage. Unforunately the moral cowards and profiteers are running the UN so all kinds of abominations are allowed to take place. In Australia the opposition leader has claimed the decision to commit Australian forces was wrong as it makes us more of a target. That is exactly the kind of cowardness that allows people like Saddam to prosper. He would the kind of person who would walk past someone being mugged and not do anything because of fear of the consequences.