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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (7292)	2/11/2003 12:32:28 PM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 25898

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him Just another stupid analogy to reduce a complex situation to a simple idea that can fit into the small, closed mind of a RWE. To humor you, this analogy can be carried further: This rattlesnake is 7000 miles and an ocean away, and his neighbors are not afraid of him. Moreover, none of his neighbors want you to attack him. This particular rattlesnake has not struck anybody for 12 years. This snake was once your friend and you fed him. This rattlesnake is starving and continues to weaken daily. This rattlesnake is sitting on a treasure of $5 trillion. Are you sure you are crushing the rattlesnake because he is a threat to you or for the treasure? Talking of rattlesnakes, it is hypothesized that they developed their rattle to warn buffalo, a hundred million or so who wandered across America and were liable to trample them. Now the buffalo have gone, courtesy of man, and man is the main threat. And such has been the magnitude of killing by man that genetic selection is already favoring the rattlesnakes who make less noise. Now the rattlers in America are much quieter. When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, just walk away. You are probably encroaching on his territory and you have killed enough already.

To: jlallen who wrote (7292)	2/11/2003 1:03:56 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

This is supposedly an actual letter home from a marine with the multinational force in Bosnia (check the signature). I thought you might get a kick out of it: Dear Dad, A funny thing happened to me yesterday at CampBondsteel (Bosnia). A French army officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought we (Americans) were a bunch of cowboys and were going to provoke a war in Iraq. He said if such a thing happens, we wouldn't be able to count on the support of France. I told him that it didn't surprise me. Since we had come to France's rescue in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War, their ingratitude and jealousy was due to surface [again] at some point in the near future anyway. I also told him that is why France is a third-rate military power with a socialist economy and a bunch of pansies for soldiers. I additionally told him that America, being a nation of deeds and action, not words, would do whatever it had to do, and France's support, if it ever came, was only for show anyway. Just like in ALL NATO exercises, the US would shoulder 85% of the burden, and provide 85% of the support, as evidenced by the fact that this French officer was shopping in the American PX, and not the other way around. He began to get belligerent at that point, and I told him if he would like to, I would meet him outside in front of the Burger King and whip his ass in front of the entire Multi-National Brigade East, thus demonstrating that even the smallest American had more fight in him than the average Frenchman. He called me a barbarian cowboy and walked away in a huff. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Dad, tell Mom I love her, Your loving daughter, Mary Beth Johnson LtCol., USMC