At 11:49 PM 5/24/01 +1200 K.Feete wrote:
>>That's precisely what you argued, though, Kat - that there was "not much
>>reason" to be arrogant. So, you admit that you were incorrect?
>
>*Are* you in law training, John? You really ought to be.
No - but I had eight years of competitive debate in school. Otherwise, I
am your average Economist with Geology training.
>Besides, what's the worst that happens? I say "Well, I don't know much
>about this but I think..." and twenty people fall all over themselves
>correcting my ignorance in twenty different ways and I come away knowing
>all kinds of stuff I didn't know before. Oh, yeah, and I have to eat my
>words, but what the hell, they don't feed me enough in college anyway.
The problem is you all too rarely eat your words. You admit to being
wrong on individual details, but never the preponderance of your point.
>>Let me put this in perspective for you. If you go to the Korean War
>>Memorial in Washington, D.C. - you will see a poignant tribute to all those
>>who gave their lives for "A Land They Never Knew, and a People They Never
>>Met."
>
>They have many war memorials all over New Zealand. I don't remember
>hearing anything about New Zealand in any of my history books. That's
>arrogance.
There is also nothing about Sao Tome and Principe in our history books. Is
that arrogance as well? There are 190 or so members of the United Nations.
Spending the one hour in each day usually devoted to Social Scienes in
our schools per country, would consume more than the average American
school year. Is that arrogance? Or just reality?
(P.S. New Zealand actually appeared a couple times in *my* history books.
Once for first giving the right to vote to women, once for participating in
US anti-communist programmes in the Pacific (was it SEATO?), and once for
protesting French nuclear tests.)
>> I'm not going to debate the ethics of depleted uranium, but
>>suffice to say, the Bosniacs also recognize that they were being
>>systematically exterminated by the Serbs, and we were the ones who saved
>>them.
>
>Funny, I didn't see too many pictures of crowds cheering the NATO
>peacekeepers as they marched... though I saw several of impromptu
>brick-lobbings.
What news service were you watching? When the US troops rolled into
Kosovo, they were practically showered with flower petals! Your world
seems incredibly insular sometimes.
>Gee, two in a row! You actually caught the mockery! But, John, the Axis
>*wasn't* evil and genocidal. Hitler was evil and genocidal. If we stretch
>a bit we can probably claim all of Germany, and I suppose Mussolini as
>well, although as far as I can remember he was mostly a vain little
>bastard. Japan wasn't.
Well, the original Axis referred to "Berlin-Rome" (hence the name.) Yes,
the Japanese weren't so much genocidal, as just brutal war criminals.
>I'm sure, though people will have to refesh my
>memory on this one, that some of the other Axis powers weren't either.
There were other Axis *powers*? ;-)
>And I'm damn sure the Germans fighting under Hitler weren't evil and
>genocidal,
A great many of them were. Hitler didn't run Auschwitz by himself, or
Treblinka, or.......
>Put away the black paint, John. You're old enough now to be using the
>colors.
What's most amazing about you Kat, is your indignant resentment about
recognizing massive human rights abuses - and your continued inability to
call the perpetrators of those abuses *evil* and those who put a stop to
those abuses *good*.
>But I hardly consider fighting a war- any war- to be something a country
>should be *proud* of. The fact that you've had to fight it means you
>really screwed up somewhere back there; you're past the point of fixing
>your mistakes and into the realm of damage control.
Care to tell me exactly where the South Koreans screwed up, such that they
were invaded by the North? Or where the Americans screwed up, such that
we had to fight Britain in 1776?
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of institutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
