Kemco Games

[smaug_the_dragon]

I was following the Iraq thread under the French Army topic. On that note, has anyone read any Zinn or Chomsky? I personallly recommend 'A People's History of the United States' by Zinn. I point out that he was a bombadier in WWII and used the GI Bill to eventually get his PhD. It's a unique perspective from a veteran, especially given that veterans with a progressive viewpoint don't get much airtime in the media. I've been to protests and seen Veterans For Peace, yet they don't make CNN, the angry young Gen X punks throwing rocks do. One of Zinn's salient points is that the US, very seldom the protector of freedom is bulilt on exploitation, expansionism. But you could say, "well, who isn't?" However, if you can see beyond the propaganda they brainwashed you with in compulsory public ed, you can see why "we're hated", a question that was not adequately answered after 9/11.

Chomsky writes among other things, 'What Uncle Sam really wants." I don
't say you should agree with these guys, but read them so you better understand where other people are coming from when they don't agree with you. When a President ussually grabs less than 50% of eligible voter's votes, you can't say the majority of the population agrees with him, so why not see what alternaqtive view points are out there that aren't beamed from Fox-News and CNN?

But is the US ulitmately evil? NO. Her free-enterprise system created innovations that revolutionized the world economy, fostered creativity on a scale unknown (except maybe Rome), and increased the standard of living (even for those below $20,000/year) by leaps. Yet some supporters of this great system advocate self-empowerment, but not altruism, which is a frequently used rationale for going into the Vietnams and Iraqs of the world. If you follow Any Rands' arguments she would say that the system that givs us these great guidance systems cannot coexist with altruism of any kind, and in a true free-market environment where inidividual rights are fully recongnized by everyone, there can be no room for force.

One more book, that helps take it all in is Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat', a how-to on coping with globaliization. His final chapter helped me to see why some in the Arab Muslim world is so quick to anger and why they do cold-blooded things like cut heads off. The link is between no opportunity and lack of pride. If our occupation opens the doors for Iraqis to open their own businesses, then some who would otherwise use their tech-savvy for roadside bombs will apply their knowledge to maintaining servers for s Fortune 500 company. Don't forget, prior to Saddam's invasion of Iran, Iraq had top-notch education and medicine (hard to believe?) Imagine, how what Iraq would have acheived had the US not helped him achieve power and Reagan/Old Bush not supported him? Maybe this time, when it is safe for Iraqis for our troops to leave, we can learn from hsitory and not redo old mistakes, or we're doomed to repeat them and we 'FAIL' history again.