Forgive the long and passionate post, but I've been there, talked to the people, been deeply frightened by realizing that my activities could result in torture or death. I will never look at the world the same again. Nor will I accept the lame excuse of fighting communism when what's really going on is the United States propping up deeply corrupt leaders.
Nick Yes, I am familiar with the history of Latin America. But the extraordinary level of 20/20 hindsight you're displaying here is, well, remarkable. Politics is hard. Those of us who don't have to make decisions involving the fate of the world might be well served by a small degree of humility. Just once in a while, you might want to think that people like Eisenhower, for example, were doing the best they could. They didn't choose the way they did because they were evil, or corrupt, or malicious, or anything like that. But because they had a hard choice, and they did the best they could. Are you familiar with the history of Eastern Europe? To flip your question on its head. How about Russia? China? Cambodia? North Korea? Cuba under Castro? If you are, then you shouldn't say something so historically blind as "the lame excuse of fighting communism." There was _nothing_ more important than that over the second half of the twentieth century and for you now, enjoying the fruits of that epic triumph, to say that the whole effort was "lame" is no better than saying that beating the Nazis wasn't worth the effort. Gautam
