From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 10:28:51 -0500
Subject: [OT] Someone has the blinders on today
John A said: Sort of a final chapter to the boneheaded history of English Colonialism (granted that the English have done better than some other colonialists--but feeling good about comparisons to Imperial Japan, Leopold of Belgium, and the Spanish Inquisition mean you're in the wrong category to begin with.) [Tomb] Unlike U.S. adventurism and proxy warfighting which has done its share to contribute to the current African and Middle Eastern situations not to mention that despots US foreign policy has propped up in places like South/Central America? I think all the majors powers have played this inherently amoral power game and the end result is a more messed up world. I'm not terribly sure anyone from USA should be throwing stones.... "Judge not, lest ye be judged." If only we could get Syria and Iraq to nuke each other--now that's a fireworks show I could appreciate. [Tomb] Maybe I'm alone here, but there are a lot of innocent people in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Some maybe just ignorant sheep, many may just be terrified proto- serfs. But they're people. I don't think I could "really appreciate" the deaths of large number of innocents, who are usually the ones who get hammered in any conflict and especially if it involves the precedent that Nuclear War is once again acceptable. And in a strictly Americentric viewpoint, this is STILL a disasterous idea - It is very easy to knockdown satellites and either India or Pakistan could probably manage it with a little work. It probably isn't all that hard to put a big nuke up to orbit and take out a lot of comms and recce satellites. If you don't have them, why not take em out? I don't think killing tons of people in a pyrhic display of criminal stupidity is going to help anyone anywhere. It sure isn't going to make the world a better place, nor is polluting the atmosphere and land with radioactives. This particular case is one where the US, Europe, and China and Russia should probably be wading in big- time and saying "Sit down, shut up, and act like adults! If either of you starts something, you'll regret it badly for a very very long time." This is, on the other hand, far far offtopic for THIS list, and should be taken OT or let die the death it deserves. This is a scary ugly situation but it doesn't really relate to the 2183 situation.