Julian, If it weren't for the late, great Howard Zinn, I wouldn't have known the extent of the USA's egregious crimes in Laos. They tend to teach a very different version of history here.
Your summation of our present situation is spot-on (if somewhat kinder than my own views of the majority of my fellow citizens.) >>Up until that point, we have a hostage situation. It truly feels that way. The propaganda here is just awful, and the lack of critical thinking skills amongst the general populace makes for a credulous lot. We can but hope these latest disclosures via the brave Ed Snowden will shake enough of them from their stupor long enough to stand and take action. -Shelley ---- https://prism-break.org/ On Aug 19, 2013 8:28 PM, Julian Oliver <jul...@julianoliver.com> wrote: [...] OT: Speaking of violence, greetings from Vientiane, Laos, where I'm told to greet with "I'm not an American!". Seems locals are still a bit grumpy about the 700000+ civilians killed by U.S. bombs in the Vietnam War. There were more bombs dropped here by U.S. (260 million) than all the bombs dropped in WWII. The U.S. wasn't at war with Laos. 80 million bombs still lie in the fields, unexploded, and no U.S. gov since the war will help clean up. Few Americans would know of this. Many won't even know where or what Laos is. U.S. taxpayers bankrolled that death and suffering. I don't think "the majority of people" in the U.S. would be OK with that if transparently given the choice to do so again today. Americans - generally speaking - aren't a violent blood-thirsty people. They are however - generally speaking - drunk on national myths, spun-out on bad news and kept very much out of touch with what their government (as a group of powerful people) actually does - what it is interested in, what it wants. This is why whistleblowing is so very important. Only in knowledge can a democracy ever take seed. If, after tangible knowledge of such violence wrought, (under so and so terms, at such and such cost, with these and these goals) citizens are /still/ to vote in favour, then sad and terrible that country is. Up until that point, we have a hostage situation. Cheers! -- Julian Oliver PGP B6E9FD9A http://julianoliver.com http://criticalengineering.org -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
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