From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Fri Sep 20 2002 - 13:09:53 MDT
In a message dated 9/19/02 10:06:19, Dehede011@aol.com writes:
> Perhaps you need to spend more time establishing the context of what
>you are saying. If you read this list there is a context of "was the U.S.
>right or wrong."
How much context does one need to put in? I think it's downright bizarre
to have to put in disclaimers that one isn't discussing actions of the US
gov when one isn't even talking about it. And how on earth did such a
context get on this list? I would assume everybody here knows that
lying and crooked behavior are practically job requirements for success
in politics and would have no interest in defending any of them, only for
analyzing them.
> Unless you carefully and at some length distinguish yourself from
>those two groups you will almost automatically be misunderstood.
> We are in a difficult time and a lot of people unfortunately are in a
>"take no prisoners" frame of mind. But their attitude is both easy
>understand and to accept. We, the U. S., have been the receipents of a
>declaration of war and had several thousand of our citizens killed in that
>war.
This is what I mean by tribalism. What's this "We, the US" business?
I, like everybody else on this planet, am forced to submit to the
government of one place or the other and for various reasons, mostly
accident of birth, it's the US in my case. How did bombing the WTC
make the agents of the US gov't any more ethical? It remains the
greatest danger to its own citizens' wellbeing by far. It may be a
sensible arrangement to cooperate more with them as a matter of
convenience vs. Muslim fundamentalists, a la Stalin in WWII, but it's
foolish to forget that's a deal with the devil.
Likewise, who cares if Dubya wants to do x for nefarious reasons?
Any president of the US will act on nefarious reasons. The question
is whether it's a constructive or not - you know the motives are
bogus.
If i didn't post to this list I'd be completely boggled to find so many
people arguing about "US: right or wrong". I would expect to see
graoning about how everybody's brain has gotten shut off and ideas
for getting them back on again.
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