Re: CHAT: America's unfolding history

James,

Thank you for posting this.  Since I sent may angry post publicly, I thought
I should also acknowledge this post publicly and accept your olive branch.
I certainly agree that America has done many foolish things in its history
and that when a strong nation does something foolish the consequenses are on
a grander scale than when a weak nation does the same kinds of foolish
things.  America has acted rashly in its history, but we have just as often
been guilty of waiting too long to involve ourselves.  Look at how long it
took us to involve ourselves in WWII.  We waited until nearly the whole
continent of Europe had fallen and still didn't enter the Pacific front
until Pearl Harbor.

When America does respond to this I have no doubt that there will be a wide
range of opinions both at home and abroad from those who are angry because
we responded too slowly/weakly to those who think we responded too
hastily/strongly to those who think we had no right to respond.  Currently
83% of Americans polled support armed retaliation even if that means
starting a real war.  That figure will change, perhaps dramatically as the
passions of fury dull somewhat.  The American political machinery usually
moves slowly enough that cooler heads prevail.

Again, thank you for this post, and may I offer my condolences to YOUR
nation on the hundreds of UK citizens and national who have also perished in
this tragedy.  I was moved to tears last night as I read on the cnn web site
of the British response to this tragedy.

Adam

So lift the cup of joy and take a big drink.
In spite of it all it's a beautiful world.
-------Suzanne Knutzen




>From: "O'Connell James" <jamestomas2@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: America's unfolding history
>Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 19:25:49 +0100
>
>Ok,
>first and foremost I aplogise for bringing this up - I
>guess that this was probably neither the time or the
>place to bring this up, however I have to say I feel
>strongly on this matter and now realise I should have
>perhaps left these comments to private discussion.
>
>There are also a fair few points that I realise now
>were rather easy to misinterpret, so I will set some
>of these straight.
>
>Firstly I never said that I support the terrorist
>attacks - obviously I do not - I observed a silence
>for those who died, just like everyone else - although
>bare in mind that I, unlike most people also held an
>extra minute's silence for all those who have died in
>the tragic history of confrontational politics in the
>Middle-East.
>
>Secondly, if I seem to accuse America of anything, I
>do not. My own country of Britain is guilty of all the
>same things that America is and, in some cases, more.
>To be frank, most of my anger comes from my total
>disillusion with western civilisation as a whole,
>which to me seems to have, if anything, regressed
>somewhat from 2000 years ago.
>
>One thing though that I do feel very strongly about is
>that some people seem to think that America AND
>Britain AND all western countries are perfect, and
>superior than other LEDCs.
>
>Also much of my anger grows from my fear that America
>will retalliate too quickly. I am glad to say that it
>seems that the US has considered things quite calmly,
>so perhaps I misjudged President Bush - I guessed that
>America would have already launched military strikes.
>
>I hope that those on the list will understand my
>motives for making the comments I did, and understand
>that I certainly meant no disrespect.
>I simply don't want to see any one killed as I have
>already seen so many needless deaths in so many
>conflicts of history that I have studied.
>
>Once again, sorry
>James
>
>  --- Andrew Chaney <adchaney@...> wrote: > on
>12/09/01 14:30, O'Connell James
> > (jamestomas2@YAHOO.CO.UK) wrote:
> >
> > > Unfortunately I fear that America, led by maybe
> > the
> > > person most feared in England, President Bush,
> > will
> >
> > I agree that such a campaign woul be horribly
> > unjustified.
> > But what I don't understand is why everyone seems to
> > think Bush
> > is such a trigger-happy fool. He may not be the best
> > at public
> > speaking, but he's not an idiot...
> >
> > andy.
> >
> > adchaney@louisiana.edu
> > http://adc.htmlplanet.com/
>
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