I noticed some people have began calling the Iraqis "The Enemy"

[NNN0LHI]

Does whomever Bush decides to attack automatically become the enemy to you?

It doesn't work that way with me. Just because some drunken frat boy crackhead decides some group of people should become the enemy its not going to necessarily work that way for me.

I never considered the Vietnamese people "The Enemy" either even though we killed millions of them.

I think we should quit killing Iraqis and try to become friends with them.

Doesn't that make more sense?

Don

[Demeter]

1. Bush and Cheney and Their Enablers and Supporters Are the Enemy

Enemy to the world!

[Cooley Hurd]

2. I call them the victims...

:(

[Maat]

8. Yes, thank you ... I call them victims too (n/t)!

[ClayZ]

10. I call them victims, too!

K and R

[Solly Mack]

3. Thank you

[alarimer]

4. It's a way of dehumanizing people and making the war seem legitimate

Even though it isn't. And the Iraqis are not our enemies. They never did anything to us. Neither did the Vietnamese. It is all some geopolitical game in both cases.

[Buzz Clik]

5. You'll also notice that damned near every insurgent in Iraq is now "al Qaeda"

There's a lot of bullshit out there.

[Redstone]

6. Well, yeah, it makes sense to YOU, and to ME, and to pretty much

anyone else with a brain...so you expect that bush and them will get it?

What, you want miracles? The blind to see, the lame to walk, the idiotic to grow a brain cell or two? Not likely.

Redstone

[The Straight Story]

7. Saddam was considered our enemy, as were his armies, for a long time now

And one could well define those who are trying to kill you as an enemy (as we are the enemy to them).

The problem comes in when we define an entire citizenry as the enemy as it appears some are now doing.

The Iraqi's themselves were never the enemy, their leadership was - and I hope they don't see all Americans as their enemy either, cause we aren't :)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Saddam attacked the U.S.? I hate it when we do that. nt

[wtmusic]

13. Iraqis hadn't been trying to kill us since 1991

but I guess one derive that into some kind of twisted reason to attack them again 12 years later :eyes:

[The Straight Story]

16. I was going by what Gore and Clinton had to say on it all in the 90's

not my own analysis.

[wtmusic]

17. Two questions

1. What does that have to do with 2007?
2. When did Gore and/or Clinton ever call Saddam "the enemy" after 1991?

[The Straight Story]

18. Ummm, Gore said saddam must go for one

and what it has to do with 2007 - we set up people back in the 90's to see Iraq as the enemy, and the left bought into then and the right does now, so both sides got into the whole thing (so both parties are covered in this).

Wednesday, 28 June, 2000, 00:32 GMT 01:32 UK
US Vice-President Al Gore has told Iraqi opposition politicians that the United States remains committed to the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/809168.stm

And see my post last night on something similar here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1716063

Point being is that we have heard for several administrations now that Iraq is the enemy, so it is no surprise that we hear something similar now (even though saddam is out of power).

Eight years of clinton and nearly as much for this bush, and we have had it hammered into our psyche that they are the enemy.

[wtmusic]

23. You're fudging

Clinton never said anything about Saddam in your link; Gore claimed "the Iraqi leader should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity" and said nothing about "his armies".

You've converted that to "Iraq is the enemy".

Careful, your agenda is showing. :eyes:

[The Straight Story]

24. Oh please

A simple search on google.com/unclesam on clinton/gore and iraq/saddam shows more than enough that they towed the line.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2000/21-300600.html
GORE REPEATS THAT SADDAM MUST GO. U.S. Vice President Al Gore told Iraqi opposition leaders that Saddam Husseyn "must be removed from power," AP reported on 26 June. Among his audience at the Washington meeting were representatives of the Kurdish Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Iraq National Congress (INC), and the Constitutional Monarchist Movement.

Clinton rallies domestic support for strike at Iraq
Clinton said the US stands in opposition to the "reckless acts of outlaw nations" and an "unholy axis" of terrorists, drug dealers, and organized crime. While the US would greatly prefer a diplomatic solution to the crisis, Clinton reiterated that the US is ready to use force.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/980217/1998021741.html

Saddam Abused His Last Chance, Clinton Says
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 1998 – A month ago, the United States called off its war planes to give Saddam Hussein one last chance to cooperate. When he failed to do so, the United States took action.

President Clinton ordered air strikes Dec. 16 against Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Warships and combat aircraft began bombarding the defiant Gulf state at 5 p.m. EST - - 1 a.m. in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

"The international community gave Saddam one last chance to resume cooperation with the weapons inspectors," Clinton said. "Saddam has failed to seize the chance. So we had to act and act now."

Less than an hour after American and British forces launched Operation Desert Fox, the president addressed the nation to explain his decision. He said the attack was designed to protect the national interests of the United States and the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=41731

We have played them as the enemy for a long time, both dems and repugs. And I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[Doctor_J]

11. They have certainly done far more damage to the US than Iraq has

including Saddam.

[BlooInBloo]

12. "Begun"? Like years ago.

[KT2000]

14. Yes, usually accompanied

by "we should just nuke 'em."
American intellect at work.

[BlooInBloo]

19. "and let god sort it out".

[undeterred]

15. They haven't appreciated us properly with flowers and chocolates,

so they're the enemy. Its kind of like an abusive spouse looking at the abused and calling them the enemy.

[provis99]

20. isn't it profound?

No longer are the "insurgents", or "al-Quaeda" the enemy, it is now the Iraqis as a whole. But that's probably true. It's not just the insurgents, or terrorists, or al-Quaeda who hate us; probably every Iraqi hates us and wants us out for what we did to them. So if they aren't our enemy, we are definitely theirs.

[IndyOp]

21. The Iraqis have been the enemy since before the invasion -

You HAVE to create an enemy to dehumanize the people you are ordering your soldier's to kill -

[Kingofalldems]

22. I've seen one here who calls them the enemy

Strange logic. What would Americans do if invaded?

[GliderGuider]

25. I call them the Resistance. (nt)