http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1025 ... oristb.png

YOU decide...

(you might need to save the pic out, then zoom in on it)

I'm on my way out, but I WILL be reading this later!!!!

I thought something similar had already been discussed and it was agreed the 'goodies' (sorry, I'm not a SW fan - never even seen a movie the whole way through) were the terrorists.

I suppose it depends which side of the fence yuo are on as to who is the goody and who is the bady

I think the terrorists were the Rebels, but, it wasn't terrorism as it's perceived today. The Empire went round the galaxy, threatening, killing, destroying so they could have their way. I think a good example would be what the war in Iraq was *meant* to do. Go in, topple the dictatorship, and that's it (from what I've heard, read, seen, it didn't quite go like that, but I think that was the plan). Wasn't Star Wars the same? Evil dictatorship, get's toppled by the 'goodies'?

We were lied to about weapons of mass destruction being available in Iraq which could be let loose on the West in 45 minutes, which it turned out Saddam didn't have anyway. So it was neatly turned into the equally illegal "regime change". It was all an unholy mess, and those responsible for kicking it off should be brought to book.

Having poked the hornets' nest and made things worse, we're going to be paying for both Iraq and Afghanistan misadventures with lives and money for decades. All hail our inglorious leaders.

I don't care if we were lied to, and I don't really care about the war in Iraq or what happens over there really, I do feel for the soldiers families though. But that's aside the point. And yeah, we will be paying for the [LIFTED] that our Governments caused, I'm not disputing that in anyway, what I'm doing, is comparing the story line of a film to a real world event that I feel bears resemblance to each other.

The way were told about what the war was aiming to achieve, and how it was covered, doesn't it resemble the films? Just forget the latest bit, and there are quite a few similaritires. The statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled, the Death Star blowing up, Emperor Palpatine being thrown down the shaft and killed? Saddam Hussein being executed. I would say there are quite a few similarities.

My point was the "regime change" aspect of going into Iraq wasn't the original excuse. That came later once the original excuse of WMD was found to be false, and it appeared the Iraqi people were pleased to see the invaders.

I'm not a Star Wars fan, so I can't really comment on the plot similarities. I just wanted to remind people of why we followed the US into Iraq in the first place, which had nothing to do with toppling the regime.

I never really followed what was happening in the Iraq war, so can't really comment here, I was always under the impression that we went in to topple the regime, I though Iran was the WMD target.


Because Tony Blair was G.Bush's lap dog? [/childness]
I haven't a clue why we followed really.


Once again, I thought that was the original plan..I should probably stop reading the papers...

So there we have it.

A moderator shamelessly taking a thread off-topic. What's going to happen now, timark_uk?

We also have to remember that historically, we (is the USA and Britain) were the architects of this mess a long time before the current problems.

1 - Remember when Russia invaded Afghanistan? That was a scary time, and the Taleban were hailed as the great helpers in causing the Russian withdrawl.

2 - Saddam Hussein was the man of choice for the USA when it came to leader changes. During the Iran/Iraq war, he was the good guy on facing a battering from those pesky Iranians.

3 - The whole region was carved up after WWII to protect western interests. Kuwait was created out of the rum that became Iraq - curiously it had a lot of oil, and the will to supply it to the west.

+1. And as you point out, going to war for the purposes of regime change is technically illegal.

Can I pipe up with the old "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"?

It's impossible to use a word like terror without forgetting that almost exactly the same idiom is conveyed in Shock-and-Awe.....

Terror usually stems from a viewpoint becoming so sick of the perceived injustice of generations that it takes someone over the edge and into the realms of mass-murder. Without wishing to take any kind of emotive sides, Ireland was effectively invaded and occupied for hundreds of years before the IRA and republican paramilitaries came about. I could never forget or forgive the actions they took, but it's important to see the original cause of their anger in order to understand them. The same must be remembered about the middle east. Religious extremisim (a term I don't like using) ends up as an effective catalyst in what is usually a secular and sociological "argument" for change.