[BB_Eye]

Originally Posted by WOMBAI

You make some good points - but sanctions has to be the lesser of two evils - if some action is to be taken - then it should be sanctions rather than our own troops risking their lives!

I'm not really in favour of either myself. The best thing our country can do is criticise human rights abuses abroad while upholding them at home (to think it all sounds so easy), something our government has failed to do with its draconian anti-terror laws and collaboration with the US on the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay without trial and its disastrous pre-emptive war in Iraq under false pretences. All of this is analogous to our policy on nuclear weapons. The government and the MoD are happy to break international law on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but still feel the need to preach to nations such as North Korea and Iran on their nuclear programme. And somehow the rest of the world is meant to believe that these two peaceful (however despotic) countries pose more of a threat than warmongers such as Israel to whom, the US has been supplying nuclear weapons for many years. It's no wonder that any advice we offer to failed states automatically translates into "do as I say, not as I do".