So I went to a debate on the Iraq situation tonight. . .don't really have the time or energy (or maybe I'm just lazy) to write up the whole thing right now but I'll give the details. . .pretty good crowd, decidedly anti-war bias with one guy in the back who kept muttering things that I didn't really catch but that sounded like personal attacks against the pro-war member of the debate. . .

pro-war was argued by Dr. H. Sterling Burnett, a conservative environmentalist, and i'd have to say they could have found a better voice as he tended to get defensive and seemed to have lacked preparation. . .anti-war was argued by Dr. Louis Dumas, professor of economics at UTD and a liberal economist, who sounded much more prepared and eloquent. . .my friend commented that we must have found the only conservative environmentalist and liberal economist on the planet. . .

Neither participant really threw anything new on the table. . .Burnett was rather unconvincing in most things he said even though I believe they have the greater weight. . .Dumas predictably went with the French side of send in more inspectors and give them more time. . .Burnett never asked how much time was necessary. . .Burnett also didn't deal with violent people only respond to violence and that if we continue to play games with Saddam, he's only going to grow bolder. . .

Burnett had six reasons that must be met for a war to be just (my friend thought that he really shouldn't be arguing from a just war standpoint) but i got there about 10 minutes late and didn't catch the six. . .Dumas thought there were only three and I'll paraphrase them here:

1.Clear and compelling evidence of a threat
2. It's our last resort
3. The consequences of the war are less than the long term consequences brought on by said war.

He naturally argued that the Iraq situation failed to achieve any of these points. . .he also argued that attacking Iraq increased the chances of future terrorism which I find to be pretty much silly. . .

Burnett did bring up that without the current saber rattling by the US, Iraq would still be in complete non-compliance with the UN. . .also pointed out that France and Germany have far more to gain from oil interests in Iraq than we ever will. . .

Both participants dealt with Korea way more than I would have liked for a debate on Iraq. . .Dumas asked Burnett why couldn't we wait a few months to let the inspection process work and Burnett didn't really have an answer. . .nothing like "he's had 12 years, how much freaking time does he need?" or "with our forces concentrated, they are more vulnerable and if he hasn't complied by this time, he isn't likely to". . .both sides believe that sanctions were strangling Iraq but the debate didn't focus much on the humanitarian benefits of ousting Saddam. . .

Audience questions were mostly jibberish. . .overall an interesting evening but nothing particularly earth shattering. . .I found it interesting that the crowd was mostly (probably 3 to 1) anti war but then it was at a Unitarian Church (we can't make up our minds about God but can't really decide to not believe so we'll just be Unitarian and live in harmony and peace and love with everyone and everything). . .

I guess I had more energy than I thought. . .can't think of anything to make this more boring so I'll just post as is. . .
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