Exactly. You have said it much better than I have been able to, as well.
By the way, Art of War should be mandatory reading to any head of state.
Re pissing people off - You would not believe how bad it is in Europe. After Sept. 11, everyone was wearing American flags, but it has been months since the last time I spoke to someone sympathetic to the US, in London, Paris, Genova, Milan, and all over the French riviera.
And this is urban, upscale Europe. I cannot imagine how public opinion must be like in Muslim countries. I am truly afraid for where this is going....
Take a look at this - Time magazine poll for "Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
?" and the US is leading by 84.5% of total votes:
time.com
North Korea: 7.2%, Iraq: 8.3%
For example, 94% of Egyptians are now against us. Have you ever heard of such unanimous verdict in a nation?
I read it is something like 80% in Kuwait. And those are the guys the US saved from Saddam. Imagine the rest of the Arab world....
I find it strange that Fred is willing to accept an animated drawing of a truck with gas tanks in it as proof that Iraq can produce WMD, but my pointing out how Bush's oil buddies are missing out on Iraqi oil and how the war distracts from economic woes of Americans at home is just idle conjecture and hypothesis.
My personal favourite is the "intercepts" of two guys speaking in Arabic, who might as well be talking into mikes in Pentagon for all we know.
State of the art technology, satellites, "Enemy of the State", etc and all we have as "evidence" is two guys speaking in Arabic whose identities they cannot even tell and match in some way to other recordings of their voices, in order to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is indeed those two talking and those two are officers in Iraqi state?
Such voice recordings are not even accepted as evidence in a divorce, because of the unreliability of the medium and the ease of faking the output. And we are supposed to gape in fear to hear this recording of two guys speaking in Arabic about "modified vehicles" (tractors? who knows?) and sanction the death of thousands and the pillaging of their country's natural resources?
I really don't think so.
I think Americans should really start listening to what the world is telling them.... |
