Anti-American sentiment

[G. Hammond]

A wonderfully one sided view of the world.
For what its worth.
I thought this was a site for discussing the camino not a convenient drop of
political opinion.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey Crawley" <jeffrey.crawleyaFABERMAUNSELL.COM>
To: <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: Anti-American sentiment


| For what it's worth . . .
|
| There are over 290 million Americans in the world, some are mad, some are
| bad, some are sweet, some are helpful, some are good, some are set on
world
| domination.
|
| The whole world isn't Anti American but a lot of us are unhappy with what
| you are doing to the world we all share and many, many people have
| increasing fears of where American political and economic policy are
taking
| us all.
|
| With respect to Iraq, yes, Saddam is a potential threat, probably has the
| capability to produce nuclear weapons and is in infringement both of human
| rights and UN resolutions but is that a reason to kill probably thousands
| of innocent men, women and children? And he had NOTHING to do with the
Twin
| Towers - Bin Laden hates Saddam just as much or even more than he hates
the
| US, Saddam has killed more Shi'ites than Bin Laden killed Americans
|
| Israel HAS nuclear weapons, infringes human rights and has many UN
| resolutions against them, are you going to bomb Israel?
|
| Pakistan HAS nuclear weapons, infringes human rights and has many UN
| resolutions against them, are you going to bomb Pakistan?
|
| North Korea has the potential to build nuclear weapons, infringes human
| rights and has many UN resolutions against them, are you going to bomb
| North Korea?
|
| Presumably not, but why not?  Is it because none of those three countries
| have oil the rest of the world is asking itself? The answer usually comes
| back a resounding YES especially as the key members of the US
| administration are locked in tightly to the Seven Sisters.
|
| Yes, Saddam is a bad person who has bombed and invaded another country
(but
| don't forget Kuwait only exists because basically some faceless bureaucrat
| in London drew a straight line on a map and said "this side shall be Iraq
| and THIS side shall be Kuwait") and caused the death of many of his
| countrymen. The US KNOWS he has the capability to produce chemical and
| biological weapons, they know because they SOLD the technology to Saddam
| (ask Donald Rumsfeldt who was involved at the time in 1982) when they
| thought he could be controlled as their weapon against Iran.
|
| You should then consider the fact that the US has bombed 22 countries
since
| 1945, it also HAS nuclear weapons, causes the infringement of human rights
| and has UN resolutions against them, are you going to bomb yourselves?
|
| Consider further the fact that the US produces 25% of ALL world pollution
| but denies the third world the chance to lift itself out of poverty and
| even fouls its own doorstep drilling for oil on Texas beaches and in the
| Alaskan wilderness. Are you starting to see why not everybody loves you?
|
| We are all very sorry that the US suffered 3000 casualties on September
11,
| but you should know that for a huge part of the Spanish speaking world
| September 11 (1972) is remembered as the date when America engineered the
| overthrow of a legally elected government in Chile and replaced it with a
| vile, fascist government lead by August Pinoche who killed many more
| thousands of his own people than the number that died in New York's terror
| attack.
|
| OK, that should have gotten enough blood boiling. So while your dander is
| up what are you going to do about it?  Well, LISTEN for one thing!  I'm
| sorry the German student was so upsetting but did you ask him to explain
| why he was?
|
| If you want to be popular in the world do something worthwhile and less
| selfish. Don't impose a McDonalds on every street corner, don't undermine
| peoples human rights because it is politically or economically expedient
| for you.
|
| Ask yourselves for a start why doesn't America do something about the
| appalling human rights abuses carried out daily by Israel? Are you afraid
| that being anti Israel persecution of Palestinians would brand you as
anti-
| Jewish? They are NOT the same thing.  The US Government could do this at a
| stroke and the whole of the Islamic world's attitude would change
overnight.
|
| Ask yourselves why won't the Americans ratify the Kyota Accord? Why do you
| think?  To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "It's the OIL, stupid"
|
| Perhaps when Americans abroad start to look at the way the world sees them
| they might take a moment to think more deeply about what their big
business
| companies are doing to that world, until then you would probably be best
| advised to do what your fathers did during the Vietnam war - lie and say
| you are Canadian!
|
| As far as the Camino goes (remember that's why were here folks), to use a
| fine old Yiddish term, try to be a mensch not a national of ANY country,
| accept and be accepted, embrace others and be embraced, admit your faults
| and forgive the faults of others.  In the aftermath of (your) September
| 11th there was an outpouring along the Camino of support and comfort for
| all Americans, perhaps now is the time for you to return the love and the
| understanding?
|
| Next week we'll take a pop at the British!