State of Union raises hackles worldwide, even among allies.

Christian Science Monitor ^ | Thursday January 31 2002 | Nicholas Blanford in Beirut, Michael Theodoulou in Nicosia, Cyrpus, and Roger DuMars in Seoul contri

[Kakaze]

" The U.S. was was viewed as a benevolent nation. Now we are viewed as a nation bent on taking over the world. And take you sleeping bag with you Rambo. "

Benevolent ...only when they ask for money are we considered benevolent.....as for my sleeping bag I did my time ...volunteered in fact...can you say the same?

[Canuck1]

I'd be interested to know what these folks would really be thinking if we told them we'd just walk away from Iraq and leave them to deal with it themselves.

Iraq poses a threat only to its immediate neighbors, like Kuwait, and to Israel. So, the question is, should the West give a hoot about what these wretched people in the Middle East do to each other? I say to hell with them and let them fight to the finish themselves.

Oil supplies won't be a problem as whoever ends up on top will always need plenty of US dollars.

[hoosierham]

Well, I didn't want people to have to think TOO hard;but you're probably correct. Facts that have come to light since the Lusitania sinking are near absolute proof that Winston Churchill (then in the British Naval Office) and other Brit officials literally "set up" the ship, knowing the effect large loss of "innocent" American lives would have on American public opinion (especially with plenty of yellow journalism. (The reporters of news have been slanting the message to their own goals all through history.)The Brits had been violating the neutrality by shipping munitions ,almost certainly with the collusion of American officials.

Since WWI was mostly about which KING would beat the other KINGS, we had no business going there.

I also believe persons visiting a war zone do so AT THEIR OWN RISK and should GET NO HELP FROM THEIR GOV'T when the s**t hits the fan. It is one thing to be unexpectedly caught when war begins, but deliberately heading into a war zone is for combatants , diplomats, and recognized relief workers who have been guarenteed safe passage by both combatants.

[The_Expatriate]

It seems that Winston Churchill did eventually recognize that the American intervention he had sought had opened up a Pandora's Box:

"America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these 'isms' wouldn't today be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government -- and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives."
-- Winston Churchill, Interview with William Griffen, Editor of New York Enquirer, August 1936

Of course, "seeing the light" didn't stop Churchill from working even harder to get the Americans involved in WWII long before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[hoosierham]

Unfortuneately, Hitler and the Nazis were different from the Emperor and his military. I don't think Imperial Germany could hold a candle to the bonfire of Nazi killings of non-combatants.

So if the British had not sought American help in WWI they wouldn't have NEEDED it in WWII.

So without the isms the 20th might not have been the bloodiest century in history !? Oh, the law of unintended consequences,OR the road to hell is paved with good intentions.(For the metaphyically inclined, perhaps Satan misled us humans into those wars for his goals?!