God Bless America,
Gautam Mukunda
Administrator
Fifth Annual "Jubilee" Russian Investment Symposium
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Direct: +1.617.495.3043
Fax: +1.617.495.8963
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"I say to our enemies: We are coming. God may have mercy on you, but we
won't." - Senator John McCain
"Freedom is not free."
Jon, have you been reading what people like, for example, Gautam are
posting here? Have you listened to what your government is saying?
I have heard little else from those sources than talk about retaliating in
one form or another. People like Gautum would like to reduce a Middle East
country to radioactive rubble, and your government is talking about WAR.
I am not speculating based on my opinion of the US -- if there is any
speculation, it is based on what people on your side of the Atlantic are
saying.
Jeroen
Jeroen, if you're going to lie, don't pick a topic quite so obvious as my
posts on the list. There are probably at least a _few_ people here who
have read them. To be clear for the malicious - I have not advocated, nor
would I ever advocate, the mass slaughter of innocents. I _did_ say - when
I believed that the casualty count would be in the tens of thousands - that
a nuclear response would be appropriate were it identified that a
particular government was responsible for this. I repeat - there's nothing
particularly special about dying in a nuclear explosion. American policy
on this topic is very simple. All weapons of mass destruction are the
same. A gas is a germ is a nuke. And we only have nuclear weapons. A
country that uses any type of weapon of mass destruction against the United
States will receive a nuclear response. Now, initial casualty estimates
were 20,000-30,000 people. I think that qualifies as mass destruction.
Now, I _am_ talking about war. As are our leaders. Of course our nation
is talking about war. 5000 of our citizens are dead. Do you want us to
bake cookies and sing kumbaya? If a foreign government was responsible for
what happened, we're going to war. If a foreign government killed 5000
American citizens and we _aren't_ supposed to go to war over that, when the
hell are we supposed to go to war? What, exactly, is our military _for_ if
it's not to do something when thousands of American citizens are killed?
Let me assure you that it is _not_ to solve every problem like Bosnia in
Europe's backyard that European countries can't take care of for
themselves. So, Jeroen, other than abandoning Israel and apologizing for
our existence on this earth, what would _you_ have the United States do?
Gautam
