From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Dec 17 2001 - 12:43:59 MST
>From: Kai Becker <kmb@kai-m-becker.de>
>My question: When Israel has such a high standard of living
>(GDP/person) and can afford[1] a large military service[2] with
>modern high-tech weapons, why does it receive 6.43 times more
>development aid per person than Egypt and 11.8 times more than
>Afghanistan? What is paid from this money? Food? Houses?
>Education? Weapons?
Because the Israelis are our friends and allies.
>Please don't get me wrong, I find it amazing what Israel has
>achieved since 1948 in terms of turning desert into acres. I just
>find that development aid should be spend first, where people need
>it most.
You may spend your money wherever you like, we will do the same.
We are not the international welfare society.
>.... much to the astonishment of most of the worlds population,
>I'm afraid to say.
So in other words most of the worlds population is completely
clueless as to what we are about.
>But Samantha and I didn't write about the reaction on the terror
>attacks, but about the unconditional support for only one side
>(Israel), while mostly ignoring the rest.
And continue to ignore the facts.
The Palestinians are not the U.S.'s friends. During the Gulf war
they supported Saddam, they danced in the streets on 9/11.
A year and a half or so ago Yassir (the terrorist) Arafat walked
out of a negotiation where almost everything he said he wanted was
on the table. Yet he got up, walked out, and started the intifada
again.
Bottom line, either he can't stop terrorist acts against Israel, or
he won't, in either case there is no reason for the Israelis to say
boo to him till his actions are equal to his empty words.
>A crime can not be justified by another. This is a simple rule of
>modern law. Otherwise we would have many bad examples in history
>to justify almost everything.
We haven't committed any crime. We have responded to an act of war
in kind.
>What I was trying to explain was that there is already a war-like
>situation in the middle east for years now, which Mr. Jones
>apparently didn't know. I don't think that the US government
>didn't know that. I must therefore assume, that the actively
>ignored it. Pres. Bush even tried to step outside the discussion,
>until he found out that the others won't let him escape.
I'm not sure if you are referring to the Israel/Palestinian thing
again here or not. If so I've already answered it.
>I apologize. I have overstressed my rethoric... So, you are right,
>the money spend to bomb the rest of Afghanistan into pieces,
>scatter thousands of refugees across the land to find a single
>villain is only twice the GDP of this land or 26 times the
>development aid it received in 2000. (you might detect a little
>irony here...)
What I detect is a pile of incorrect facts.
The attack on Afghanistan was to wipe out the terrorist training
camps and the members of Al-Quaeda and their Taliban supporters
after they murdered thousands of american civilians.
>Don't you think that a small part of this money spent in 1995/96
>would have been sufficient to guide this country towards stability
>and democracy? Do you understand my point now?
To the Taliban? Hell no.
>Afghanistan has large resources of natural gas, coal and copper.
>The license for the planned gas pipeline alone would bring over
>$150Mio per year. Establish an economics where the afghan people
>can exploit these resources and really earn that money (instead of
>Exxon or Shell). This would eliminate the wish to produce opium.
So one minute you're saying we interfere to much, then the next
you're telling us how we should be interfering...
Sheesh.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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