Hi rrman,,,,
I am about as right-wing as thinking men are allowed to be (and
avoid being locked up), but the way we (US) can now use the
UN as our personal servant sickens me. There is nothing more
dangerous than a rich powerful man who is surrounded by people
who will not tell him when he is wrong. We see things from our
own point of view, and none of our media puts any other light
on anything that happens.
For instance. Remember how we got the UN to threaten Cuba
after they shot down a private US plane that was buzzing their
equivalent to the white house? Our own white house has
anti-aircraft batteries installed to protect it from the same thing.
They were installed after a private US citizen flew his plane
into the building. And we didn't do anything to the owners
of those idiots down in Florida even after the Cubans complained
to us. Fact is, no private US citizen is supposed to drop leaf-
lets (arguably an act of war, we do this during war, not during
peace) or anything else on foreign countries. Only the President
can order that sort of thing, and the congress has to give some
sort of okay.
When Iraq was in Kuwait, I thought it was a good thing that
we came to Kuwait's aid, but war and peace are supposed to
be two distinct states. Even during peace-time we send cruise
missiles into Iraq, but the nightly news doesn't have interviews
with the greiving widows, orphans, parents, and comrades of
the result of our "surgical" strikes. Can we blame them when
they blow up our soldiers? We do.
Call me an isolationist. But if we have to be the world's policeman,
we should talk softly and carry a big stick. Only use that stick
as an act of war. Instead, we're getting involved trying to make
the Iraqis leave the Kurds alone. While our alllies, the Turks are
doing damn close to the same thing with our approval and our
military assistance on their side of the border. Trying to prevent
Iraq from policing the citizens within their borders is somewhat
equivalent to sending helicopters North of the border in order
to help Quebec become independent. No thank you.
So I prefer war in the market, too. But don't mistake me for
a non-violent individual. Violence has its place. But not
between nations in other than a war. It just isn't necessary.
I never thought Vietnam was about helping the Vietnamese.
I knew it was about containing the communists. And when
I was in high-school, it looked like the communists would
take over the whole world by now. But the cold war ended
without a catastrophic conflagration. I think this is one of
a very small number of great power conflicts that ended
without all the weapons being used. We are so lucky.
It puts me in a laughing, wonderous, and happy mood
just to think of it. Now we should be at peace.
-- Carl |
