Death Sentence for Saddam Hussein

[Purple]

That could be said of every country in the world! So why focus on us?

Because many of us see fit to criticise other countries that actually try to solve problems around the world when we adopt a position of utter moral cowardice; neutrality.
We were happy to trade with Libya when everyone else in the civilised world was severing ties in the 80's. When we were forced to stop we lobbied for years to have the embargo lifted. We are now happy to work for armament companies when we can while we criticise the countries that use those arms.
It's not that we are any worse than other countries but the moral hypocrisy gets to me.

 

[Glenbhoy]

What did we do in the Balkans?
I do not agree with the death penalty in any circumstances and Saddam’s trial was clearly flawed but Ireland is in no position to lecture anyone about their conduct internationally.
Our foreign policies are utterly self-serving and our rhetoric is utterly hypocritical.

Ireland did nothing, i am not criticising any state's foreign policy, just trying to point out that the US/UK/Nato etc reacted extremely swiftly to the Kuwaiti invasion as opposed to the crisis in the Balkans which was emerging around the same time. The point of course being that the swift reaction was not protect the human rights of the Kuwaitis, but to secure oil supplies. Indeed the poster who commended the US/UK for forcing Saddam out of Kuwait should stop and wonder just why they didn't oust him at that time, given he was guilty of "heinous and barbaric" crimes then, or perhaps they didn't care what he did, as they don't about other dictators around the world, so long as they don't have an effect on the home country.
This is in my opinion a reasonable policy, there's no need to be hypocritical about it though, and try and pretend that the reason for intervention in country A is on humanitarian grounds, when countries X,Y,Z have similar problems, but are ignored.

 

[Purple]

This is in my opinion a reasonable policy, there's no need to be hypocritical about it though, and try and pretend that the reason for intervention in country A is on humanitarian grounds, when countries X,Y,Z have similar problems, but are ignored.

I agree in general but do remember that the US and NATO went into the Balkans and the US went into Somalia for the best of reasons (even if the US bottled it half way through in Somalia). Ireland on the other hand has done bugger all (NATO peace keeping doesn’t count in this context although the US and others could learn a lot by doing some).
All that not withstanding I think that you are right that it is a reasonable foreign policy position to look after your own countries interests. The danger is when a country tries to spread an ideology by force, even when that ideology is based on the common good. You cannot force people to have the level of commonality that is required for a democracy to function.