Posted on 04/18/2003 6:07:57 AM PDT by Cathryn Crawford
Europe, in turn, would like to see America play a more co-operative role in world affairs, to be more willing to participate in global efforts to control global warming, to support the International Criminal Court, and so on.
The War in Iraq has forced the Europe's dirty little secrets out into the open. It's peace-mongering turned out to be a cover for arms sales. The UN Oil-For-Food program is now revealed as a billion dollar scam run by Kofi Annan to funnel Euro-denominated purchases from Saddam to France, Germany and Russia and the UN itself. And the sanctions a piece of blackmail to ensure that France and Germany get every euro in back payments for weaponry delivered. It was all about money, dirty money at that. Blood for oil: American blood for French oil, to be precise. So Americans might be forgiven for looking a little more closely at the notion of a Belgian court trumping the US Constitution and the greenly packaged bundle of regulations which not so coincidentally confers economic advantages on Europe while penalizing America.
Kiss and make up? Maybe, but the Pandora's box, now opened, is not so easily shut. The day when America took Europe's word unquestioningly are over. From now on, the Soviet Rules apply. "Trust, but verify."
This phrase says it all. They see us as having become too powerful, too quickly, and they hate us for it.
Okay, if George Bush
speaks of "co-operation,"
it is "menacing."
When Europeans
use the word, it's all flowers
and bunnies. Got it.
"Immunity" of course is difficult to achieve no matter what, but merely having the capacity to behave as a superpower confers no benefit at all... unless the capacity is occasionally used. The 9/11 attack was only the most recent in a series of bombing attacks against our embassies, our ships, our troops, and even a prior attack on the World Trade Center itself. The responses made to those attacks by the Clinton Administration were not those of a superpower; they were symbolic acts that were interpreted not as evidence of power, but of weakness and an unwillingness to defend.
We shall see in time whether this new, more robust doctrine of flattening regimes that sponsor terrorism produces the desired change in attitude on the part of our enemies. The previous approach obviously did not.
Do you know how chilling that statement is? The statement of acceptance of the NWO? Sorry, it literally felt like someone threw ice water on me.
We have a democracy - it is a lot like Christianity - it must be chosen. It can't be forced. If other countries want democracies, let them form them. But believe me democracies are not made because you wish for them or because you purchase them or because you have a bigger army and can force them. They are formed because people are willing to work and sacrifice and live that democracy each and every day.
We can show the world democracy - we cannot force it on them. We have already lost our original form of government now have a sort of democracy ourselves.
That's overstating things a bit, because "interests" is a pretty inclusive word. A more accurate description is that "America is now ready to strike at any potential deadly threat to its civilian population, before that threat is realized."
The old policy formulation, where one could reasonably ask, "But what have they ever done to us?" has to be tempered by the realization that today, waiting until someone else attacks first could mean that a nuclear bomb has gone off in New York, Chicago, or Washington... or maybe all three on the same day. Waiting for that to happen is neither wise nor praiseworthy. It is irresponsible.
It used to be that such weapons could only be produced and used by a fairly well-organized military, headed by people with some education and worldliness -- and only in a manner that would identify them as the perpetrators if they ever did it. Now they can take some camel jockey out of the desert, whose only schooling has been at the hands of the Mullahs, and send him over here to blow up himself and one of our cities in the name of Allah -- leaving no suspects or witnesses. That's a different world, and it requires different notions of what constitutes "self defense." Yes, such ideas are tricky and scary in execution, but the alternative is the surprise killing of millions of our civilians. That's not an alternative we can -- or are going to -- accept.
I just am not ready to admit it yet. Don't know how old you are - but I have seen what we have lost. A lot of young people never knew it -
Well we agree on that and it is something I have been saying since 9/11. Now this is where we will probably part company. Why, then, are we not cleaning out this country. Why are we not shutting our borders to the illegals and yes, we know ME men are coming over here through the Mexican border. They aren't paying 30,000 to get here to work at the 7-11. We are going around the world to fight when the danger is possibly right here among us already. But we do nothing - less than nothing. Why are we allowing the Muslims to get more and more influence? Why is President Bush so set on leaving the border open and kowtowing to the Muslims? Why?
I am afraid that won't be the case, the rest of the world, and many in this country would prefer the communistic version.
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