Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:35:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Gilbert Lawrence <[email protected]>
The distraction of America, can also apply to other countries, and to us as individuals. I have merely tried to point out the price America paid for those distractions. Undoubtedly others (countries and individuals) who get distracted pay similar prices, in direct and indirect costs. Mario observes: Now we see Gilbert continue his relentless demagoguery by comparing individuals and other countries to America, which is an absurd comparison, and anything he disapproves of from his worm's eye view of the world as a "distraction". America has traditionally not conducted itself by the accountants method of decisionmaking, by counting the "price" rather than doing what it believed was right and letting its dynamic economy take care of the price. It is other countries who, unwilling or unable to pay the price, are forced to become feckless and cowering targets of tyranny, dependent on America to underwrite their freedom and security. A perusal of the defense expenditures of the Europeans as a percentage of their GDPs, and the US bases on European soil, will prove this point. If it hadn't been for America and its traditional reliable allies like Britain and Australia, joined from time to time by others, Gilbert would have been speaking Japanese by now. If it hadn't been for America and its traditional reliable allies like Britain and Australia, joined from time to time by others, the old Soviet Union would have dominated most of the world by now instead of being on the thrash heap of history. If it hadn't been for America and its traditional reliable allies like Britain and Australia, joined from time to time by others, Iraq would still be under Saddam's brutal heel, instead of a nascent democracy governing itself. Because of America's naive new administration, the world may have to deal with two rogue nuclear powers like N. Korea and Iran, with a history of selling their technologies to the highest bidder, unless Japan and China wake up to the N. Korean threat in their part of the world, and Israel neutralizes the threat of Iran, which are all mere distractions to smug demagogues like Gilbert.
