Well, it seems that a few of the responses on this thread are specifically anti-US in their tone.
I don't get it. Why do some of the list members feel it's necessary to come up with presumptions about actions the US never took? To even mention none existent horrors of slaughtered Iraqis is ridiculous. There was no slaughter. There was decisive action taken upon the coalition forces to drive Hussein's armies from Kuwait. Whatever the reasons were for the actions was decided upon by coalition forces and those who participated in the coalition agreed upon them at the request of the Kuwaiti monarchy.
What occurred after the Gulf War ended was approved by the UN. There are arguments against the sanctions now, but those countries that walked hand in hand with the US were compelled to aid a country that was overrun by Iraqi tanks.
Furthermore, I won't say whether, or not, I agree with a new war with Iraq. I haven't come to any decisive conclusions----but, I do have a definite feeling that I would not want to be involved in the fighting that may occur.
What bothers me is how some of the list members take everything that the US does and warps it to form the basis of their arguments against the US. No nation is innocent. History has proven that. So, while you may feel the US is not doing it's part to be the good guy on the block, I say look around the block...the US has done a pretty good job of reining in trouble makers. And if you don't like what the US has done, then do something about it. Vote into office the people who share your ideology, your point of view, what have you.
Is there anything the US has done to help humanity? I think so, but I'm beginning to think that many of you don't. Oh well.
Ponder this...can we, or should we, blame the Brits for Israeli/Palestinian conflict from it's beginnings in the 1940's, the conflict in Kashmir that erupted after India and Pakistan were granted independence in 1948, the eradication of thousands of Aborigines, Africans, Indians, and American Indians throughout the history of the British Empire? Can we blame Germany for the Holocaust and WWII, the same going for the Japanese with their own atrocities against the Chinese during WWII? What of the Russians since they killed millions of their own in order to quell any dissent? Oh yeah, how about the multitude of 3rd world countries whose leaders took it upon themselves to eradicate their foes?
And, yes, I do know that the US supported some of those 3rd countries. But, in hindsight, it may have been necessary in order to prevent communism from taking freedoms that so many people want and deserve to have. Yep, I know that some of those 3rd world leaders forced the capitulation of the masses or fea death. But, we are an evolutionary species. Evolution doesn't happen overnight. Political evolution, neither.
The world cannot be seen through rose-tinted glasses. There is good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral, chaos and order, as well as, the various shades of gray that fall between. To think otherwise is too simplistic and naive. We live in a global society today---much of what has occurred in the past was not readily available for public consumption because of limited means of distributing information. Today's technology bridges those gaps.
However, we need to realize that the US cannot do everything for everybody. Is it about priorities? Of course. We feel certain things take priority over others. I'm not foolish in thinking otherwise. I feel despair and compassion for people suffering all over the world as do many of the people who live in the US, including some of our leaders.
But, in some cases, that is necessary in order to substantiate the costs of being involved in the first place. I don't necessarily like it, but that's today's political arena for you. It's global, as most things are nowadays. We (meaning everyone) need to learn that concept. And we need to learn how to make the best of situations that make us cringe and gasp in horror. Until we do we won't have found what were looking for.
Kind regards,
Casey
---- This message was posted by Casey to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=26114>
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