quote:
Originally posted by Cowgirl Jack:
You didn't read what I just said about Chirac and oil, did you?
Actually I did, but I give it as much credence as I give earlier comments about German financial interests controlling the German government's agenda. The Germans must have been outraged by such a comment. (I don't know that for a fact as I haven't read about it.)

I admit the French are acting in a Gaullist tradition of seeing themselves (as the leader of Europe) as being a "natural" counterbalance to American influence, and that this is tainting their views, to their discredit. But talk of a French commerical conspiracy against a war sounds as kooky to me as Jack the Little Death's "Big Oil is responsible for 9/11" theory.

quote:


As far as China is concern...Castro made the comment that the country has become more capitalistic. Hahahaha...we 'evil' Americans are capitalistis too, you know. I don't care about the Olympics that much either. We have had the honor and the pleasure of hosting them before, and I have no objection if they host.
But that's my point. No objection probably means you don't give a shit one way or the other. Now, apply that in reverse to the rest of the world and their thoughts on the US generally.

quote:


I am not in the state of panic as you describe. The US was attack. Now, call me crazy, but I thought the natural and common sense form of action would be to retaliate against those responsible?
Please let me know how you formed the conclusion Iraq was responsible for 11 Sept.

Please direct me to one credible link to confirm this.

The US did retaliate against al Qaeda, and with some success (setting aside the abyssmal failure of not neutralising Osama bin Laden). Al Qaeda and Iraq are not linked.

quote:

And no, Bush is not 'clearly and overwhelmingly' going for oil. We have had so many opportunities to go for oil and get it cheap.
When? The Gulf War? Bush I had no UN mandate to invade Iraq. He wanted to go further but could not. No other opportunities spring to mind. If you can think of any, let us know and I'll debate them with you.

quote:


No one could have possibly stopped us.
That sort of talk makes you sound like North Korea. Or perhaps just imperial.

quote:


Instead, our government (even some democrats), has sarificed the opportunity to get cheap oil.

Dave, our military is so advance, there will be minimal civilian casualties in this war.


We've discussed this before, and from memory you failed to rebut my comment that smart bombs cannot prevent the famine, infant mortality and disease that will follow an invasion.

I really respect the fact that the US military and policy-makers has sufficient humanitarian concern (a cynic would say an eye on the TV-watching voting public) to use smart bombs. But no amount of munitions will stop the predicted deaths from the destruction of public infrastructure.

quote:


Have you heard about the 'Human-shields' over in Iraq right now. They went to go protect hospitals and the like from 'American attack'. Guess what? They're mad now because they've been placed (gasp) at military bases. But...they thought the 'evil' Americans were going to bomb the little orphans!
I did hear about the human shields. I thought it was hopelessly naive. Of course Saddam is evil enough to use them on military targets (I specualted to my wife that instead Saddm would put ammo dumps next to hospitals protected by human shields).

The best way for people like that to help is to get jobs, instead of stupidly martyring themselves and letting themselves be manipulated, and donate to UNICEF, the Red Cross, and similar charities. (Which is what I will be doing when the war starts.)

As an aside, reading some of your posts in particular has been an intriguing insight into how some Americans view the hostility that much of the world regards the US.

Rather than taking the blame for decades of roughshod foreign policy (a bit unfair, perhaps, as the American people generally decided to ignore foreign policy and left it to their governments), it seems some Americans instead externalise the blame, attributing it to "jealousy". "It wasn't us, its them!"

I've no doubt at all some people in some parts of the world are jealous of the US (Jiang Zemin is in awe of US technology, and Arabs generally who think of themselves as morally superior to the West choke at the existing scenario of being lower down the military food chain).

But if you think its pure "jealousy", then you didn't pay attention to why 11 Sept happened.