At 10:05 AM 9/17/01 +1000 Russell Chapman wrote:
>Are you seriously suggesting that the United States does not have a
legitimate
>government?
The United States has done many wrong and ignoble things in the past. The
United States has never, in my opinion, been a state-sponsor of terrorism.
Indeed, I am unaware that any credible accusation of state-sponsored
terrorism has ever been leveled against the United States. Even Saddam
Hussein did not call the US a state-sponsor of terrorism in his most recent
diatribe against us.
>The current administration was elected in accordance with the
constitution, by a
>public who were aware, or reasonably should have been aware, that their
>government was supplying arms, training and logistic support to dissidents
and
>insurgents in hot spots all over the world.
Ah.... "Dissisdents and Insurgents" =/ Terrorists.
>Even Libya, whose government is a despicable sham, and whose government put
>supporting terrorism on top of its agenda for many years, is still widely
seen as
>a legitimate government.
Well, I consider them an illegitimate government due to their gross abuses
of human rights. Given, however, that the US cannot bring to justice all
illegitimate governments, I am prepared to start at the top of the list -
and only deny legitimacy to those governments that are *active*
state-sponsors of terrorism. (Note: this definition would exclude Lybia,
Syria, Sudan, and Iran who are currently dormant state-sponsors of terrorism.)
>For that matter, there are governments recognised by the
>US that didn't just support terrorism but used terrorism to get there -
Nelson
>Mandela and Arafat were both terrorists in their youth. George Speight was a
>terrorist only last year, but is now a member of the recognised parliament of
>Fiji.
Mandela was not a terrorist, as far as I recall, but that was before my time.
Speight is a member of Parliament in part because of his renunciation of
terrorism. Of course, the peace in Fiji is imperfect and tenuous at best.
Araft is not a legitimate leader of the Palestinian people as far as I am
concerned. Once the US has dealth with Afghanistan and Iraq, I hope (but
know better) that Palestine will be next. Peace is simply not possible in
Israel until Arafat and his cabal are out of the picture.
>(Just to clarify my position, as my last couple of posts have suggested
the CIA
>has done the wrong thing over the last 50 years,
And I recognize the wrong things that the CIA has done. Those wrong
things, however, did not amount to active state-sponsoring of terrorism.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Freedom itself was attacked today, and Freedom will be Defended."
-U.S. President George W. Bush, 09/11/01
