waving our flags

Supposedly the "freedom" existing in the United States of America
permits us to question, at least to a degree, some of our government
practices. Of course, during a war, this "freedom" becomes somewhat
modified, for security reasons and due to the fact that it is
important to create a *united* front against the perceived enemy.

However, like Neil Haverstick and John deLaubenfels, I can't help but
have some questions.

In the first place:

1) Was Kuwait *really* so important to us in terms of oil and gas
acquisition that we had to go in there and stop Saddam Hussein in
1993?? Why were we really there? Did they *really* supply us with
that much in the way of petroleum products that our involvement in
that was really necessary.

Of course, it was *that* involvement which led to the stationing of
troups in Saudi Arabia which, ostensibly, is what so many of the
radical Islamic militants are so upset about.

Was all of this really necessary? Did the U.S. really have to play
the "big policeman" in this case? The rationale was never really
clear to me at the time, and, frankly it still isn't.

2) HOWEVER, the concomitant question concerns the Arab "anger..."
Has the presence of this anger been a fact "suppressed" by our
government?? I'm wondering... since this can't be totally "new."
Frankly, I never heard about it at all! Sure, I've heard frequently
of the "ugly American" and most of the reference has been, generally
speaking, related to Europeans. But, personally, I never heard much
about Arabs until now. Surely, this is not an attitude that has
appeared within the last six weeks or so. Why was the American
public never informed that some of the Arabs were getting this
incensed?? For the most part, I believe people were *shocked* to
find that anger directed against Americans. Surprise. Certainly
people must have known about it. My view is that much of this
activity had to have been suppressed.... (??)

[Joseph Pehrson wrote:]
>Supposedly the "freedom" existing in the United States of America
>permits us to question, at least to a degree, some of our government
>practices. Of course, during a war, this "freedom" becomes somewhat
>modified, for security reasons and due to the fact that it is
>important to create a *united* front against the perceived enemy.

Though you go on to question some of the policies of the U.S., I really
feel I must comment on the paragraph above.

I think that it is vital to the future of this nation, to question _all_
of its policies, all the more so in time of war, when reason tends to
take a back seat to the blood-lust of killing.

There's some new stamp going to come out with the theme "Unity and
Freedom" (or maybe it's "Freedom and Unity", I don't remember). This
is complete double-think, exactly as the phrase "Equal Opportunity /
Affirmative Action" is (we can debate that one separately, if anyone
wants to). To put it starkly, "unity" is the antithesis of freedom.
The word "freedom" is absolutely hollow if the policies of the
government cannot be questioned.

Of course, by "freedom", I do not mean to imply a right to take any sort
of _action_ one pleases (that's exactly the trap that nations fall into
in times of war), but very definitely the right, I would say the duty,
to criticize our nation's choices of action whenever one's conscience
demands it.

Which, of course, you go on to do, Joe. So, if I seem to be beating you
up, I don't mean to ;-> .

As to the specific issue of Americans being clueless to Arab anger
before now, we have only ourselves to blame. It is true that U.S. news
outlets have not reported on this much, but as a nation we have failed
to criticize them for it. In the end, they feed us what they perceive
we want to hear, and whether TV, print, or online, that's based entirely
upon what generates the highest ratings (i.e. advertising dollars). We
can have better reporting if and when we demand it.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna write a letter to the editor of my local
(Atlanta) paper, regarding the non-reporting of this FBI torture plan.
I would urge others to do the same.

JdL