Jason, you have got to be kidding me. what you speak of is isolationism, if
you think that works go read a history book. If you think American foriegn
policy sucks, read my previous posting. And if you think giving in to a
pansied-assed suggestion that if we were kinder to everyone this wouldn't
happen, you have lost connection with reality. We are not our own enemy.
Realize that over 30,000 probably people died on Tuesday. That exceeds our
previous most bloody day of 22,000 at Anteitam in 1863. And is almost half
the number of Americans killed in the whole Vietnam war.
Everyone has a beef with someone, that does not justify anything, nor does
it lead me to beleive that I should resolve the problem that causes them to
be disenfranchised. These people will hate and kill someone, even they are
not killing themselves they will find someone. If it wasn't us, they would
have someone else on their list. Today, it just happens to be America.
Patrick Bowen
-----Original Message-----
From: Jason [mailto:jjcon2@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 12:09 AM
To: Laura.G@141.com
Cc: Spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Self evaluation
"You know, people who commit such acts do them because they feel
horribly disenfranchised and completely between a rock and a hard
place. Find the exact people responsible for this act on the WTC,
and work to make the situations better for the rest-so that they
won't feel the need to commit such acts in the future. "
Laura Gharazeddine
DING DING DING! Laura is onto something here. What situations could those
people be in that they hate the U.S. so much?
Our Democratic Republic (not a democracy) has for the last 40 or 50 years
advanced certain foreign policies that at times have been manipulative,
selfish and extortionist in nature. The Government that represents us to the
world has supported Dictators in South and Central America and aided
unscrupulous governments (like Iran vs. Iraq) wage war to protect our
"National Interests" a.k.a. favorable conditions for our large corporations.
Then we abandon them when they no longer serve our needs or fail to obey us
(Manuel Noriega). In 1973 we and the Australians basically gave Indonesia
permission to invade East Timor and wipe out 1/3 of the population. Home of
the free? We ran to Kuwait's aid to protect our "National Interests" (big
oil) in '91, yet dragged our feet for years before we helped the Croats and
Bosnians. Tibet? Forget it. Americans don't drink Yak milk.
The US Govt is big. So big sometimes parts of it dont know what other
parts are doing. Some of what are Government has done has been good. Lots of
it, while well intentioned has had less than perfect results. At times we
are meddling hypocrites and some of our Governments activities are just
plain criminal (death squads and Sandanistas).
Our Government has abused and pissed off a lot of people in the world. What
we got yesterday was a big slap in the face (but not justifiable) for some
past bad behavior.
Unfortunately, many innocent people were murdered. Hopefully their deaths
will not be wasted. If all we get out of the media and our leaders in the
next few weeks is a bunch of flag waving rhetoric about how great America is
and that we need to kick some ass to show how strong we are, then their
lives will be wasted. If there is a serious review of our recent world
behavior and we start to PRACTICE the ideals set down in our Constitution
for Individual Liberty and personal responsibility ALL the time when we deal
with other Nations, then maybe the US wouldnt be so resented in some parts
of the world.
Id guess the Taliban or other Muslim group attacked us for our Gulf War/
big oil dealings and our support of Israel. Why do we support Israel and not
help Tibet? Both religions are under attack.
We need to go back to George Washingtons position; Friendly to all,
entangled with none. We need to get out of the UN, NATO, SETO and the rest
of the alphabet soup we are cursed with. Let Europeans deal with their
problems, and the same for the middle east, Asia, Africa. Lets mind our own
business. The Libertarian Party (www.LP.org) has always proposed this type
of foreign policy. Individuals would be free to support or oppose any cause
they want outside our borders, but our Government remains neutral.
Our Government should not be protecting large US based Corporations from the
consequences of their actions in "host" countries either.
What happened yesterday was tragic, but not unexpected if you follow the
news. How many of you monitor our governments behavior and hold our leaders
accountable? How many of you have written to your elected officials on ANY
issue? How many of you vote?
We the Citizens of the US need to PARTICIPATE and monitor our Government's
activites more closely. We need to ensure they act on principle and not out
of selfishness. When they make an error we need to point it out to them even
if it means going to the effort of protesting WTO/ Seattle style. Hopefully
our future global conduct will be beyond reproach and no one will feel
justified in striking at us.
Jason Constantino
Flames for my bonnet anyone?
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