Justin Keyes wrote:
> You don't have to be specific. No single act committed by Americans
> compares to 11 Sept.
Agreed.
> It's sadly amusing to hear anyone try to put down America and Americans
> for caring about themselves before others. This is the same attitude
> of those who think it is ok for our people to be bombed, but not for us
> to bomb the bombers. This is one of the most frustrating
> idiosyncracies that lay within people's perspective on America: people
> actually begrudge America for considering America's interests.
Agreed. We help everyone and because we do that, we help the
enemies of others, even if we are helping them as well.
> Bryan, you made a slew of good points--but the above reply concerning
> Sadaam Hussein is a cop-out.
No its not. The people who live in northern Iraq are a general
annoyance to both the Turks and Iraqis. Now gassing them is wrong.
But they aren't necessarily Iraq's own people.
> The Hussein family has committed acts far worse than murder and
> betrayal of their own followers, including rape and extended
> torture in the name of entertainment. If you are jaded to
> any of these notions, then you have gone too far in your quest to
> "embrace all perspectives."
I was just dismissing an overused comment. Don't take it to be my
general attitude towards Hussein.
> The idea that America is to blame for funding bin Laden ~15(?) years
> ago is ludicrous;
Not exactly. Bin Laden directly, no. But some of the factions we
are now fighting, yes. If you want to go into the financing of
Afganistan and Pakistan, let's do it! Very interesting stuff
indeed.
> it is a waste of time to bring it up, and it derails
> any credibility had by its utterer.
No history should every be forgotten. If we do, we are doomed to
repeat those same mistakes.
> And as for Korea and Vietnam:
> America made the best decisions it could at the time...
Vietnam is an example of the damage that falsified intelligence can
do. Politicians screw up enough with good intelligence.
> why do people cite carefully made bad decisions as evidence that the
> decision-makers are rightfully ridiculed? To answer my own question:
> hindsight is 20-20. Arm-chair quarterbacks.
History has recorded the Johnson and Clinton administrations as the
most costly and least effect foreign policies in the later half of
the 20th century. At least Carter didn't spend as much for the same
lack of effectiveness.
After Iran-Contra, we lost all control over Afganistan. I don't
know if I agree with our involvement there, that will be debated,
but because of Iran-Contra, our human intelligence effectively died
in most "hot spots" in the world. This culminated with an executive
order by Clinton in 1995 that made it "illegal to work with 'bad
guys.'" Yeah.
> Another frustrating trend: people begrudge the existence of politics
> in government. That is, people begrudge the philosophy of government
> and country in government. _Something_ about that IRKS ME!!!!!!!!!!!
That's because many Americans, including myself, feel the current
2-party system is offering _no_choice_whatsoever_! They give two
viewpoint and both of them are bad!
> You realize, of course, that their holy war is based on our _indirect_
> intrusion by way of cultural influence (something that without our
> control), and _their_ intrusion was made directly by way of 4
> commerical airliners.
The Taliban, yes. But Arab culture, no. That's my point.
-- TheBS
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org chat:thebs413 Engineer AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ Those living in the US who consider the American flag to be a sym- bol of oppression obviously fail to understand what the word means
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