BCITORGB wrote:


TnT says:
==================
The N. Korean Nuclear threat is very real, but we have not gone
storming in there, and are trying to get them to the negotiating table
with their neighbors....
=====================

You'll excuse me if I find that just a bit disingenuous.

My take on it is that the USA has not gone storming in there because
(a) you might be in for a rude surprise if they do have and use nuclear
weapons and (b) there's no oil or anything else of much economic value
there (and, perhaps, (c) you don't like the idea of upsetting the
Chinese who may not be as sophisticated weapons-wise, but don't have to
worry too much about a depleted armed forces or popular reaction
against a military draft.)

You'd think that the U.S. would attack China, if only for the long term
occupation of and atrocities it committed in Tibet. But alas, Tibet has
no oil and China has a lot of very heavy yield nuclear weapons...

TnT says:
===================
I do not expect to see our troops marching down the EU boulevards,
since they are civilized and appear willing to solve their own issues.
==============

Oh, how very nice of you to say so.

But the fact that you might think about it, were the Euros not so
civilised (by your reckoning), is a frightening thought.

Funny thing we're talking about acting civilised.

Let's talk about the similarities between China and the U.S.: Both have
enough WMD's to destroy the world, but want no one else to get them,
both have invaded other independent nations that posed no threat to them
in the past century, both are having a bigger percentage of their own
citizens behind bars than anyone else, both countries use prisoners as
slave labour, both countries commit war crimes, use torture on a regular
basis and use executions on a large scale.

At what point do the Euros appear less civilised to American eyes? Will
it be economic issues that tip the balance (like, for instance, even
more central bankers around the world opting to hold euros instead of
dollars as reserve currencies)? Or, could it be that social or "values"
issues tip the balance from your perspective (like more cities like
Frankfurt setting up injection sites for drug addicts? Or more
countries like the Netherlands adopting laws permitting euthanasia?).
Please, let Europe know at what point it will no longer be considered
"civilised" from an American perspective.

Considering that the current U.S. administration has already threathened
to use force to free any single U.S. war criminal who is brought
before the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, I think that
"civilised" U.S. style means invading a fellow member of the NATO if it
suits your needs...

The propaganda used to attack the Dutch drug laws is also funny. The
U.S. government sent a retired general over who stated that the
Netherlands was a drug paradise, with higher murder and other crime
rates than the U.S.. This general was then verbally shamed by the Dutch
diplomat who simply inquired where the general got his statistics.

It's one thing to try to lie to your own population, it's another to lie
to someone who knows the truth.

TnT says:
=====================
maintained troops in Europe, and political pressure on the Iron
Curtain countries to take down the Wall... We eventually saw the Wall
come down,....
=======================

I hope you're not suggesting that American "pressure" brought down the
wall. If you are, I suggest you acquaint yourself with concepts and
names like "Solidarity", "Vaclav Havel", the Luthern church in
Leipzig.... and countless more. American pressure? I think not!

I will, on this issue, however, give a tip of the hat to Pres. Reagan
and his military spending. Put overly simplistically, his spending
brought the Soviet empire to bankrupcy (trying to keep up) before the
Yanks went broke. That did help bring the wall down.

Funny how similar spending now is helping the Yanks go broke. Looks like
Osama learned a valuable lesson from the time the CIA helped him in
Afghanistan. Hurt them in such a way that they will attack anything that
moves and spend more than they can afford, eventually hitting where it
hurts the most, in their economy.

Oh! I get it! You'll protect the oil from tyrants who oppose the USA.
Clearly some tyrants are OK. So the USA won't be bringng liberation and
democracy to Saudi Arabia any time soon then, eh?

And there we touch the core of the current U.S. government strategy: do
as we say, don't do as we do: long live double standards!

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilko(a t)dse(d o t)nl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://wilko.webzone.ru/