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

To: Dayuhan who wrote (60839)	12/10/2002 5:09:43 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Loopie "thought" (to use the term very loosely indeed) is a vague amalgam of fundamentalist environmentalistm, Luddite dread of technology, mushy New Age spiritualism, one strand of fundamentalist feminism, and a host of other single-issue manias, all rolled together into an incoherent ball. Internal contradiction is the order of the day. Yeah, California is riddled with people like that. I have an Ex in-law who turned into " Jeff Spicoli" back in '68, bought 20 acres in Northern California, and lives in a log cabin he built on it. There is not a nutty idea that he has not spouted, in between his puffs of weed. One of our problems is that a major "Loopie" here is Gore. You could take the "Unibomber Manifesto" and publish it as "Earth in the Balance II," and people would have no trouble believing he wrote it. It was a bigger problem 20 years ago when a lot of the Environmental ideas had not been shot down, but they are still an huge organized force. You are relaxing over there in the Philippine Jungle, (Whoops, I mean "Rain Forest) and don't feel the direct effects of it. I actually heard these words from the mouth of an American missionary They are still around, aren't they? I have been following the rise of fundamental style Christianity in the Third World, and it is growing much faster than Islam, from what I read. The most interesting part of it to me is that it is being led by locals, not US imports, and that is one of the reasons it is growing so fast. We are in much better shape with the locals believing in "Rendering unto Caesar," than if they adopt a "The Mullahs should run everything" Philosophy. The idea that Bush and his buddies or Gore and his buddies were the best this nation could come up with still horrifies me. It is hard to tell how good your leaders are when you are in the middle of things. If you read contemporary accounts of Lincoln, he was really thought to be an Idiot by a lot of people. I have just finished reading an excellent book on FDR and his conduct of WWII. The day by day history of what he did, and the mistakes made, are eye-opening. But we look back now and see the magnificent job that was done. We will look back in a few years from our present muddle and be better able to judge this bunch. not convinced that there are no options One of the problems is that Governments don't do "Nuance" to well. They are very good at doing nothing or doing everything, the twists and turns in between are difficult.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (60839)	12/10/2002 6:11:23 AM
From: zonder	Respond to of 281500

This is a brilliant way to explain it. If most people are convinced that we intend to keep that swinging dick in our pants and use it with restraint and with the consent of others that are involved, the more moderate forms of anti-Americanism will be muted. If we swagger into town giving the impression that we are going to do whatever the hell we want with that big swingin’ thang, including tossing people over logs and giving them the Deliverance treatment, people are going to get upset.