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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (27853)	2/4/2004 7:48:07 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793917

Thanks, Brumar, I had forgotten about the Stark incident. I find it very interesting, with all the evidence of terrorism being fostered in our 'old friends' Egypt and Saudi Arabia (highly subsidized friends too) even today, that when Stephen wants to dredge up a sample of US 'undue favoritism', he has to reach back into the history for the Liberty incident. That alone he considers extreme favoritism. Kinda like he considers that Israel alone was born in Original Sin, unlike what we must suppose are the Virgin Births of all the other nations that have arisen in the last 100 years or so.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (27853)	2/4/2004 11:12:21 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793917

I've mentioned this before, but in the interests of perhaps keeping "peace in the family," will mention it again. The NSA museum has a display on the Liberty incident which is very critical of Israel - all but points the finger at Israel and suggests a cover-up. At least it did about two years ago, and it seemed to be a permanent display. And it was, after all, NSA people who were killed. It was, as I recall, after 9/11, which means Bush was President, which means you can't blame Clinton. The NSA museum is off the beaten tourist track, behind a gas station, almost on the NSA grounds. My conclusion - you don't have to be anti-Semitic to be disappointed in the way that the event occurred. And please note how often Mq brings up the Rainbow Warrior event, which doesn't make him necessarily anti-French. People have their little fixations, typically events which caused a heavy load of emotion in their lives. I have my own hobby horses, including the Great Depression and racism in the Old South.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (27853)	2/6/2004 2:13:22 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

Have you looked into the USS Stark case? 37 American sailors were killed. Iraq said it was an accident. That explanation was accepted even though the Stark had hailed the Iraqi plane which attacked it. Actually a somewhat analogous case. Despite our nominal neutrality in his war with Iran, Saddam was our buddy back then, as long as he was at war with those bad mullahs. Calling the attack anything but an accident would have forced us to move from nominal neutrality to actual neutrality, which would have been inconvenient. As in the Liberty case, there is a strong inclination to ignore or excuse inconvenient events. It is actually possible that the Stark case was an accident. It involved a single missile fired from a single aircraft, and there is no certainty that the Stark’s messages were received. Simple incompetence or adrenaline-fueled aggression could result in that kind of incident (the US Navy has made similar mistakes). It’s much harder to explain away an extended, close-range coordinated air/sea attack conducted after hours of close surveillance. Even when he was our buddy, I don’t think Saddam could have gotten away with having Iraqi ships fire on lifeboats launched from an American ship in distress. Note that the Stark incident was NOT discussed as a rationale for the recent war to overthrow Saddam. Understandably. Nobody really wants to talk about the days when he was on our side. Sort of like the way nobody wants to talk about how Osama was a good friend and a fighter for the cause of freedom when he was shooting at Russians.