by Lorne Yacuk

Created on: August 04, 2007

The notion of paying war reparations is both dangerous and counterproductive. Paying reparations to Iraq is absurd:

1) The term "reparations means "the making of amends for wrongs or damages done". No matter what the domestic debate is about how America got into Iraq, it can not on the INTERNATIONAL stage take measures that admit it was wrong. Nations may make poor decisions, but can never publicly admit they were wrong

2) Sometimes reparations lead to the opposite effect. After World War One, the Allies penalized Germany to such an extent that the result in Germany was not a democratic government, but such turmoil that Hitler was allows to come to power. In Iraq, characterized by factional fighting, pouring reparation in would be like pouring oil on fire.

3) Who gets the reparations? A country which has been attacked will likely have a breakdown of central government. There will be tremendous unrest in trying to re-establish a form of government. Paying reparation to one faction simply screws up the natural flow of rebuilding government.

4) Most countries are not as sophisticated as America. They operate on systems of paybacks, graft, and such. America already faces a situation in which there are 10 billion dollars missing in redevelopment costs. Reparation would only benefit the few, and not the general population

For these reasons America or any other country should pay reparations to nations that are attacked.

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