Quote:William Blum has not written anything positive, good, or encouraging about the United States in 35 years. He is socialist to the core and implies just about everyting about the United States from Nixon to Clinton is nefarious, evil, disingenuous, or corrupt. It does explains the particular point of view held by those who read him I suppose.
That is as clear an example of the ad hominem fallacy as I've seen from you, foxfyre. You should know better, and you certainly should behave better. And please don't attempt a justification excusing this because of 'what liberals here do'. You are responsible for what comes off your own typewriter first, as are each one of us. William Blum might be a nazi or wear pink dresses from J Edgar Hoover's closet...THE ONLY RELEVANT MATTER IS THE FACTUAL CLAIM THAT THE US PROVIDED ANTHRAX TO SADAAM, AND THAT HE SUBSEQUENTLY USED IT, WHICH THE US KNEW ABOUT, AND WHICH THE US DID NOT MOVE TO PREVENT. ehBeth's note below mine makes your ad hominem fallacy that much more transparent and egregious. If you don't know these facts (and they are, as ehBeth notes, old news), then you haven't done your homework. And if you haven't done your homework, then you oughta ask yourself why.
The reason I began this thread, rather a long time ago, was to engage consideration of the functional blindness that results from the sort of posture we see in sofia's post above, or americanlon's, or yours on this page above, or in a thousand other posts on this board over the last year or two. That posture holds that America is a good place, that it doesn't do much at all that is bad but where it might do so it is justified either by self-interest or by comparison to other states, and that therefore any serious indictment of America's presence in the world is wrong-minded at best and a seditious support of evil at worst.
And meanwhile, the thousandds of innocent victims in Bophal HAVE YET TO RECIEVE A FUKKING PENNY. Meanwhile, Muslims listen to the your president talk about innocent American deaths in New York WHILE YOU NOR HE NOR PERHAPS ANY OTHER AMERICAN HAS THE SLIGHTEST NOTION OF HOW MANY INNOCENT IRAQI WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND MEN HAVE BEEN KILLED IN THE LAST YEAR. Meanwhile, your president and his principals talk about forwarding democracy WHILE SUGGESTING THAT THE GOVERNMENTS OF BRITAIN OR SPAIN OR AUSTRALIA OUGHT TO COMPLETELY IGNORE THE WISHES OF THE CITIZENS WHO PUT THEM INTO POWER. Meanwhile...this long list grows.
Unless you folks who continue to adopt this posture take a deep breath and face the negative consequences which have fallen out from the US presence in the world, your enemies will grow and keep coming at you as you and your barber shake your heads and wonder why anyone would dislike your nation.