@JPB,
Quote:What's your goal, JTT? Folks on a soapbox usually have a goal. Sometimes they just like to hear themselves talk, but if you're going to spout off it's good to have a purpose.
1) Justice for those that have been egregiously wronged.
2) The hope that the American people will stand up, not 30,000 brave souls heading off to another country, but enough, at home, saying this rush to war --and this should be pretty apparent to you and all listening, JPB, you're smack dab in the middle of two more -- is so wrong.
We can work things out without 200 + thousand dying, millions suffering enormous enormous grief -- not to belittle the grief of those of 9-11, but the volume pales compared to what the Iraqis and Afghans have suffered.
Quote:Maybe I'm fortunate, but I don't know a single person who has ever said, "We are the saviors of the oppressed, we are the greatest country ever, we do no wrong". I've lived here my entire life and I've never heard that said once. In fact, most of my contemporaries are highly critical of our foreign policy.
That's a paraphrase. That same message comes across every day, in every speech that comes from pretty much any person on TV.
Quote:What are you trying to achieve? Apologies? Retributions? Policy changes going forward? Apologies are words and don't undo anything. Nor do they bring back those who died or suffer with survival. Retributions don't accomplish that either and you'll have to ask the Chinese to pay them - we're broke. Policy changes will come soon enough. We can only guess what the future holds but I don't see us coming to the "rescue" (invited or not) in the future.
Those things I set out above would be nice. Apologies, yes, absolutely. The likelihood of an
Iraq or a
Nicaragua happening again would be lessened by orders of magnitude.
The World Court has said, "Pay Nicaragua" so yes, reparations would be in order and eminently fair for a large number of countries, Cuba, for example.
And while we're on the topic, Vietnam. If y'all can pay for more bombs than were dropped during WWII, [I believe I have that correct], you can come up with a few dollars for those suffering from Agent Orange.
Until the average citizen finds out the true history of US foreign policy, there will be no policy changes. Most Americans still probably operate under the
mistaken assumption that Iraq and Afghanistan were justifiable incursions.
Why on earth would a people that make such extraordinary claims to be a rule of law country let a Reagan and a Bush administration get away with so much illegal activity?
