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

To: Ish who wrote (123101)	1/12/2004 6:32:43 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Ish, the terrorists don't seem to want to attack NZ although we can do little to fight back. Why would that be do you think? We have plenty of freedom. I've heard they hate freedom and that's why they attack the USA. Weird eh? We have had a terrorist attack by France, which killed one person. Also, a suitcase bomb in the early 1980s which killed Ernie, a harmless caretaker at a union premises, the perpetrators of which were not captured. That's about it. Not much terrorism. So far anyway. Because New Zealanders are prolific travelers, we tend to be in the firing line [dead at Bali, and in the cockpit of the aircraft which was stopped from reaching Washington]. Also, NZ troops are backing legitimate international action [East Timor, Afghanistan, now in Iraq and elsewhere]. So while you might think our big moat would protect us, it doesn't any more than the big moat around the USA protects you. Anyway, I'm sitting on a reasonably-sized island and it's not half-way around the world. YOU are on an island half way around the world. You see, it all depends on where you think the centre of the world is to be half-way around from. I guess you think Washington is the centre of the world. The British used to think Whitehall was the centre. Romans thought Rome was. The Chinese Emperors thought the Forbidden City was. I can tell you that the centre of the world is hidden in cyberspace - an ethereal presence that will loom larger until It rules the world. Americans have distorted perceptions of the rest of the world. Ask anyone from outside. I think it's because the USA is so big with so much going on, so much money, so much achievement, that any externality seems trivial. I suspect Bush really did expect Iraqis to garland the victorious troops with flowers and joy. The grind of occupation is a hard row to hoe. It's good to see Bush recognizing that PNAC needs to integrate with some sort of UN input. The big requirement is to revamp the UN into something sensible. I'm hopeful that Bush will do that. I think he's done a pretty good job, the giggle about WMD notwithstanding. <The terrorists should have hit your country because you couldn't fight back. > Ohh, nasty. Mqurice