Pales in Comparision

[russotto]

Originally posted by marichiko


Go back and read my original reply to you. If all you can do is repeat your original hysterical accusations, I'm not especially interested.

I went back and read your original messages. My so-called "hysterical accusations" are supported well by what you said there.

[tw]

Originally posted by marichiko
Go back and read my original reply to you. If all you can do is repeat your original hysterical accusations, I'm not especially interested.

Originally posted by russotto
I went back and read your original messages. My so-called "hysterical accusations" are supported well by what you said there.

Gentlemen. Glad that each knows what the other had posted. Because I don't have a clue. Both posts were so short that I could find at least two or three different interpretations of each post. Posts too short with subjective interpretation that anyone could find a perspective to disagree with.

Suggestion. Please restate your positions and only your ideas so that, at least, 'I' understand each person's perspective. Currently, one's unique interpretation of the other's post is not appreciated - so much so that only insults remain. Instead, repost what each is trying to say.

Originally posted by tw
Gentlemen. Glad that each knows what the other had posted ...

Suggestion. Please restate your positions and only your ideas so that, at least, 'I' understand each person's perspective. Currently, one's unique interpretation of the other's post is not appreciated - so much so that only insults remain. Instead, repost what each is trying to say.

OK. I'm a gentleWOMAN, by the way - minor point, but it does matter to my boyfriend.

The way I see it, the US government decries outrages that go on in other countries only when something of national interest is at stake - oil in the Middle East, for example. The US then uses these atrocities as an excuse to go in and get rid of the leaders of these countries and install ones who are more willing to go along with the US game plan. The US government does not concern itself with atrocities in Africa or elsewhere because those countries have no strategic significance and/or have nothing the US needs.

Just because I make this observation, it does not follow that I think Bin Laden is a great guy or that I'm going to name my first born child, "Saddam." What I am saying is that hypocrisy on the part of the US is recognized by the people of other nations and does little to help us in the game of winning the "hearts and minds" of individuals from other cultures. Both the American people and those of other nations would not be left with this feeling of extreme dissonance that we now experience when we hear of outrages in places like Rwanda and see the US doing nothing while our politicians mouth phrases like "peace keeper for the world."

I don't believe the US CAN be peace-keeper for the world. I don't think the US should even attempt this. Its a nice thought, but we have plenty of other problems, and I don't want to see my tax payer dollars spent in such futile attempts, especially when back home, "Johnny can't read."

However, I do feel that the US and Western Europe should take responsibility for messes we have helped to create, be they ever so inadvertant. I also believe that it is incumbant upon Western nations to act as concerned global citizens and not turn a blind eye in the face of other nations' acts against human rights and uncivilized and inhumane treatment of their own peoples. I think that atrocities in other countries can best be countered by a combination of economic sanctions and UN human rights surveilance among other things.

Just because I observe instances in American foreign policy where I feel the US could be doing better hardly make me a "commie lover" as some want to imply.