To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (138056 ) 6/27/2004 1:19:55 AM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 281500 <this has nothing to do with US' foreign policy > I don't know about that DJ. It all looks like a re-run of history from days immemorial. The USA being modern day Christian Crusaders and empire builders, with Boykin, Bush, Ashcroft and co leading the charge, [from the safety of the rear of course], might like to ponder the plight of their idol, whose plight was recently made into a movie in which the Romans were probably NOT the Good Guys [GG]. Right now, even this moment, Americans are debating with UnAmericans as to whether Americans should be subject to more universal criminal laws, in the same way that Milosevic, the Nurembergans and so on were considered to have committed international crimes worthy of international jurisdiction. Why not simply send Milosevic back to Belgrade to be tried by the Serbian government, Saddam back to Baghdad to be tried by the latest incarnation of the Arabian Nights? Just as Americans are sent back to the USA to be pardoned for their activities in My Lai, for example. There are questions arising, such as whether UnAmericans are human or merely UnAmerican Pre-emptively Defined Enemy Combatants to be permanently 'disappeared', no habeas corpus, no human rights, no trial, nothing. See what happens to UnAmericans in American captivity, outside the USA of course, for American ideas on 'human rights' in which anything the President declares to be not an abuse of human rights is ipso facto not an abuse of human rights - a circular argument on which that Goedel self-referential bloke would have had some comment nl.ijs.si Handing prisoners over to "General" Dostum, or simply feeding them directly to the wolves is also an okay thing to do. Since it isn't Americans doing the actual killing and eating, it's okay to turn the wolves loose. I'm wondering if anyone knows the difference between Saddam and Dostum. They seem similar to me. The USA seems constantly attracted to the type. Dieu et mon droit! encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com Plus ca change, Mqurice PS: Yes, yes, I know that the USA doesn't have an empire in the old style, just as Japan doesn't have an empire in the old style. But mercantilism and empire go hand in hand and the outcome is much the same. The difference is mostly one of paperwork details. The money flows look the same. Who decides what is much the same too.