[Capt Phoenix]

It is, indeed, your country. And it is your decision, right or wrong. Personally, I think it was wrong, and you may have difficulty convincing someone who lives in the most targeted city in the world, that it is a "courageous" decision. I think I spelled out why I feel that way, and I will not insult your inteligence by repeating myself. If you were not convinced the first time, repitition will not convince you; it will merely annoy you. That is not my goal. I merely wished to point out that treaties are contracts, and if you fail to live up to your obligations under one, you can not blame the other guy for considering the treaty broken.
It is a fact of national life that we have to make those kinds of decisions, sometimes. The US never ratified (and is therefore not legally bound by) the ABM treaty, but we have acted within it's constraints so long that we can be considered to have accepted it "unnofficially". If we now decide that our interests are no longer served by it, and violate it by deploying an anti-missile system, can we blame the Russians for "casting us out"? It is our right, and it is our decision. But it is also our responsibilty. If we deploy an anti-missile system, WE WILL have violated the ABM treaty. There is no shifting of blame possible.

On an amusing note: Have you noticed the perspective shift?
When the US decides to act unilaterally against the wishes of it allies, it's "arrogant". When you do it, it's "courageous". Hehe. I love watching how perspectives change as you move around the world. Europeans call Americans "crude, vulgar, and arrogant". While we find their assumption of automatic (and as far as anyone can tell - completely unfounded) superiority and condecension, enfuriatingly rude and arrogant.
But...You know what? Only from a distance.
When Europeans visit over here they almost always go back talking about how friendly, open, and generous their American friends were. And when Americans visit Europe (assuming they get outside Paris) they are universally impressed by the genuine warmth, hospitality, and friendliness, of all the people they meet.

I love perspective.

[Verbatim]

Capt

You are indeed welcome to your opinion and we will just have to agree to disagree.

Your point re perspective change is an interesting one, in 1985 when in an act of state sponsored terroism a ship, the Rainbow Warrior, was blown up in Auckland Harbour with 12 innocent people on board, one of whom died. Maybe not as horific as the recent events in New York and Washington, but horrific to the people of NZ and a terroist strike.

The NZ Police caught 2 of the terroists, who turned out to be in the French Security Forces and they eventually pleaded guilty and were sentenced to jail.

What was the reaction of the world and in particular our strong allies with whom our country men had fought and died beside in countless wars? Not to mention France who they had died trying to free in two world wars!

France? Committed the act, refused to hand over 4 others involved.

The USA & UK? (And remember ANZUS was still operating). Put pressure on the NZ government to hand over the terroists back to France!

Eventually bowing to pressure and adhering to a decision of the world court NZ handed over the two terroists, who were supposed to spend the rest of there jail term in a French prison, some pitiful compensation was paid at the time. The two terroists went to a French resort in the Pacific for a year or so and then were returned to France to receive a heroes welcome and medals.

So before anymore of you talk about NZ having to stand up to our obligations, which we always have and always will do think about whether your country has always lived up to yours. Where was the global fight against terroism in 1985? Has perspective changed?