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

To: michael97123 who wrote (43967)	5/12/2004 7:03:57 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793622

Michael, in case you hadn't noticed, Russia has been fairly busy with Afghanistan and lately Chechnya. Unfortunately, instead of helping Gorby civilize Afghanistan and end the conflict, the stupid Americans provided munitions to Osama and co to keep the conflict going and ensure that the mujahadeen won, which they did. Now, the USA is on the receiving end. Well done! Own goal. Now, Chechen KKK types are on the rampage and have caused a lot of havoc in Russia. In case it escaped your notice, Americans have been gloating about the collapse of the USSR. Gorby had been bringing about civilization really quickly, including independence for various states without major conflict. That made Russia poor and barely able to look after itself, let alone help in King George II's crusades. Own goal number 2. It would have been better for Gorby to finish with glasnost and perestroika, maintaining a powerful civilizing force to the north of the KKK forces. A drunken Yeltsin, who at least ended the last throes of communist megalomania after Gorby's kidnapping, was no substitute. To the east, the KKK forces are hard up against China which won't budge an inch. India is confronting Islamic Jihad on a daily basis in Kashmir, within India and on the border with Pakistan, with the threat of nuclear war more likely that anywhere on Earth [unless the Islamic Jihad forces have managed to stash one or two or three in the LLL zone]. Indonesia is a bit of a mess, with conflict in and around it, with KKK forces being confronted as necessary. East Timor is out of the KKK klutches. In Africa, there is constant conflict at horrendous levels, with horrific levels of AIDS infection too, with normal poverty making life miserable in many ways. Islamic Jihad is less of an issue there. They've got bigger problems [mostly]. The Moslems rightly gloat that they don't have much of an AIDS problem, though it's still horrific by rest of world levels. Stonings to death for adultery stops AIDS [in the heterosexual population anyway]. Latin America has their hands full with their own difficulties and they don't see the KiLL issue as their problem. I know the Iraq invasion is not supposed to be about oil, but it actually is. Also, money for contracts, military equipment and so on. That's the USA's interest there. So, the conflict mostly falls to the USA. Osama and co have defined the conflict as being a conflict between Islamic Jihad and the Great Satan. The USA has been supporting various regimes for decades in the middle east, maintaining military forces there, supporting Israel and generally meddling. So of course Osama and KKK forces are after the USA as the primary target. The USA politicians are acting in their own interests. They aren't really wanting to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq and the region. What they want is to get the oil and contracts and support Israel while stopping attacks on the USA. The way they plan to do it is to introduce freedom and democracy. Which is a laudable aim. They should be able to do it if Osama is wrong about USA cowardice and they really make it happen. Unfortunately for achieving the aim, being less bad than Saddam isn't the way to do it. As you say though, generally there is lethargy, or indifference, or fear. Or disbelief that Islamic Jihad is a real problem, just as there was disbelief that the Third Reich was a real threat. "Peace in our time" is an attractive promise from a politician. Scoring own goals and being not as bad as Saddam is not much use though. We see now why the International Criminal Court wasn't going to get support from the USA - criminals don't like trials. If the USA is serious about being more than a megalomaniac oil-grabbing tyrant, they'll have to get with the programme and redefine the UN and take on the responsibilities of empire. Sure, it's a different type of empire from the 19th century style, but it's still an empire. Mqurice