Frankly, being "judged" by Europe is like China being polled on our human rights record.
Greece doesn't like our friendship with Turkey, and the Netherlands has a very, very large percentage of muslims in its population. Austria is still loaded up with Nazis from the time when Europe wasn't concerned about world peace.
Sometimes mking sure good things happen means we occasionally have to fight for those things.
Peace is a wonderful thing so long as those who wish to kill you believe in it, too. It takes two to go to peace. I think it's laughbable for the peacenicks to believe that all fighting will end if we, America, just run away and hide in our own country. There was fighting, terrorism, and attacks on civilians that killed thousands all over the world long before 9-11, and there will be more butchery by those same terrorists and their backers (see Iran) after we "go home". Us going away is not going to stop Al Qaeda from organizing and carrying out attacks against us. They'd just be returning to killing American civilians again (that is, after they took a time out to celebrate their glorious victory over us in Iraq by butchering half the population there).
Isn't it amazing how so many Europeans think that the U.S. is a threat to world peace - and yet, whenever they find themselve in some predicament that cannot solve on their own we are the first ones they call on for help?
Hmmm.. don't know what happened to my first comment, didn't appear... Bill, good analysis of why Eupopeans feel the way they do about the U.S.
I'm not a pacifist but i do think most war is preventable is the threats are identified and acted upon in a timely way-- for example, Germany's invasion of the Rhineland in 1936.
i want to highly recommend "The Looming Tower: Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright. Reading it, you have to wonder what would have happened if our troops had left Saudi Arabia at the end of the first Gulf War?
I've also always been of the mind that we shouldn't conduct our foreign relations with friendly countries based upon what our enemies wish us to do. There were peaceful avenues that the Islamic Fundamentlists could have taken that would have been much more effective in changing minds here in America and elsewhere, including influencing Saudi leadership. But instead, they chose the sword.
4 comments:
Frankly, being "judged" by Europe is like China being polled on our human rights record.
Greece doesn't like our friendship with Turkey, and the Netherlands has a very, very large percentage of muslims in its population. Austria is still loaded up with Nazis from the time when Europe wasn't concerned about world peace.
Sometimes mking sure good things happen means we occasionally have to fight for those things.
Peace is a wonderful thing so long as those who wish to kill you believe in it, too. It takes two to go to peace. I think it's laughbable for the peacenicks to believe that all fighting will end if we, America, just run away and hide in our own country. There was fighting, terrorism, and attacks on civilians that killed thousands all over the world long before 9-11, and there will be more butchery by those same terrorists and their backers (see Iran) after we "go home". Us going away is not going to stop Al Qaeda from organizing and carrying out attacks against us. They'd just be returning to killing American civilians again (that is, after they took a time out to celebrate their glorious victory over us in Iraq by butchering half the population there).
Merry Christmas!
Isn't it amazing how so many Europeans think that the U.S. is a threat to world peace - and yet, whenever they find themselve in some predicament that cannot solve on their own we are the first ones they call on for help?
Hmmm.. don't know what happened to my first comment, didn't appear...
Bill, good analysis of why Eupopeans feel the way they do about the U.S.
I'm not a pacifist but i do think most war is preventable is the threats are identified and acted upon in a timely way-- for example, Germany's invasion of the Rhineland in 1936.
i want to highly recommend "The Looming Tower: Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright. Reading it, you have to wonder what would have happened if our troops had left Saudi Arabia at the end of the first Gulf War?
I've also always been of the mind that we shouldn't conduct our foreign relations with friendly countries based upon what our enemies wish us to do. There were peaceful avenues that the Islamic Fundamentlists could have taken that would have been much more effective in changing minds here in America and elsewhere, including influencing Saudi leadership. But instead, they chose the sword.
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