That's all very interesting, Mq, but it's completely beside the point. Your post that Hawk and I responded to was about free speech vs. censorship during wartime.
Nobody cast any aspersions on the military service of New Zealand, nor the bravery of its military.
I am bemused by the concept that someone who lives in a country somehow becomes a courageous, noble person because he has courageous, noble countrymen, or a courageous, noble father.
I don't think it works like that.
I also don't think someone from a country full of cowardly, ignoble people is, ipso facto, a cowardly, ignoble person.
People stand or fall on their own merits, IMO.
(Parenthetically, I wonder why you flew into such a towering dudgeon over things which are really trivial. What I said - and I think it's true - you, personally, live in New Zealand, not the United States, and are not in harm's way. For you the newsworthiness of a story would easily outweigh the risk. My assumption is that Hawk assumed that you live in the US, and he was appealing to your respect and concern for the safety and security of your fellow countrymen. There's no insult there that I can perceive.)
As for the allegation that my friends sponsor terrorism, I have a lot of friends - and two of them have contributed to the IRA, which I do not condone. To the best of my knowledge that's the extent of it - although I was friends with a Nicaraguan once who was in favor of the Sandinistas. Haven't seen him in years. |
