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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tekboy who wrote (18091)	2/5/2002 8:23:17 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

That doesn't mean he's necessarily wrong, just that when he starts opining about the price of tea in China (or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), he's just another guy on a soapbox, not a professional talking about his own area of expertise. I think we differ here and I suspect the reason we differ. I guess if you went slipping and sliding into my turf, I might invoke some sort of professional privilege. However, I think your turf is a bit different. When I write about Afghanistan or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or whatever in foreign policy, I write as a citizen/taxpayer who not only has a right to do so but, damn-it-all-to-hell (like that??) an obligation. That obligation doesn't relieve me of the burden to struggle mightily to study the subject, or to confer with others who think about such matters. But that status of mine gives me a bit of moxy. As for Hanson, whatever his authority, background, what not, whether it's in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or about daffodils, he can't think his way past his computer on international issues right now. He's blinded by trying to get his patriotic flag high enough for everyone to see. As for Nadine's point about the small proportionate size of the Jewish population in this country meaning it has no strong effect on US policy, won't fly either. Voting margins are such that any block of voters that might vote close to something resembling a block, has a great deal of weight. Only need to remember, as I'm certain Bush has not forgotten, that he did not receive the majority of the vote in the last election. So, if one wants to talk about US-Israeli relations or US-Palestinian relations and doesn't make the American Jewish vote and the oil reserves a big part of the conversation, that one simply know not whereof he speaks. John