Which War Are You Watching? -- The View from Spain

Veterans for Peace (mailing lists) ^ | 14 April 2003 | Dwight F. Reynolds

[LuisBasco]

...BOYCOTT AMERICAN PRODUCTS...

How cruel.

China has already been severely damaged by the SARS epidemic.

[BlueLancer]

"Although I suppose that every scoundrel needs a parrot perched on his shoulder..."

[rovenstinez]

Greybird, you held up well through the night. Such people as you, trying to kindly tell shouting angry Americans what the other 95% of the people who inhabit the globe are thinking of them. It's easy to dish out, and so hard to swallow, that the rest of the world now is in fear that it too will be attacked if the US doesn't like their dictators. James Polk learned in Mexico in 1848, that an invasion hardly ever will bring a healthy democracy to a people. Only those countries who strive from within for their own liberty will have the ability to maintain it. Lighten up Freepers, don't nail a guy just because he has an opposing view. Greybird is just telling you what 'he' sees in his neck of the world, and I concur, there is this feeling very evident. The rest of the world fears imperialism.

[Coop]

Dwight's been smoking some of the good stuff.

[Valin]

I remember them saying that Iraq was battle hardened and would fight to the death, that there would be tens of thousands of US deaths, that we would have to level Baghdad to take it, that the casulties would be 70% in house-to-house fighting,

You mean there wasn't?
Darn the left was wrong again still.

[Greybird]

You're very kind -- but it's the UC Santa Cruz professor now in Spain who wrote the piece I posted, not me. I'm in Los Angeles, beset by the L.A. Times and unable in my neck of the suburban woods to get the Orange County Register.

I wholeheartedly agree that we ignore at our peril how the foreign media portray this war. What Bush fails to grasp, above all, is that even the overthrowing of a murderous tyrant doesn't serve to replenish goodwill for the U.S. government. Imperium as such is feared, not its ends. With those such as Richard Perle running amuck in the halls of power, wanting unconstitutional Crusades without end, I don't blame the foreign skeptics.

As for other FReepers "lightening up," I can take it. I just wish, at times, that a few more responses would get away from scatology and "sez you."

[ladtx]

The rest of the world fears imperialism.

Then their fears are ill-placed and they know it. I suspect instead of fear it's just envy.

[BlueLancer]

"The rest of the world fears imperialism."

The guilty flee where no one pursues.

[Constantine XIII]

Who the **** said it was edifying to kill children?! The point that was being made is that these Clymers were "EEEEEEvil Imperialist Murdering Swine" less than a century ago, only in the last few decades got rid of thier own dictator, and are now lecturing US for ridding the Iraqis of their own nasty, bloody tyrant in a conflict unparalleled in its speed, success, and sheer bloodlessness toward innocents.

That DOES have a tendency to anger otherwise happy folks such as ourselves. Maybe we should find some Iraqis, whose fates we discuss, and ask them if they would rather live with the present situation, or instead go stuff all of the recently-freed chilren back into the prisons and put out a want-ad for a new dictator.

[brityank]

Thanks for posting this; it is not a slam against Americans individually as others here seem to think, rather it is a view that is portrayed by 'the Ugly American' that our policies abroad have created. I, too, have been slammed by some of the 'bushbots' that perceive any critisism of administrative policies -- present or past -- as an affront to President Bush. I think Rovenstinez said it well:

James Polk learned in Mexico in 1848, that an invasion hardly ever will bring a healthy democracy to a people. Only those countries who strive from within for their own liberty will have the ability to maintain it.

I very much doubt that any of the Muslim Countries can develop an open Republican Democracy as we have here in the US without our taking over all aspects of their societies as we did for Japan and Germany after WWII. Without the stabilization and guidance for an extended period, they will fall back into the theocratic dictatorships and war-lord mentality so prevelent in the Middle East. We may not succeed; we must try -- for humanities sake.

Should anyone doubt, I intend to vote for President Bush next year; there is no-one on the horizon with the honesty and integrity he has shown. I just wish he had fired the scumbags hand-picked minions in his first year -- they are undermining him every chance they get, and he has enough trouble with RINOs like Specter, Snowe, Chaffee and others.

[timm22]

In the eyes of non-American media, it took the world's most powerful and wealthiest nation months of planning, the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops, and the launching of thousands of missiles at a cost of tens of billions of dollars to topple one dictator -- in a country already crippled by two earlier wars and ten years of international sanctions, defended by a third-rate army almost entirely bereft of advanced armaments who put up no coordinated resistance. Not an impressive feat.

Let's see, we lost maybe 200 people from enemy fire? Took the capital in 3 weeks. Attacked simulatneously from multiple fronts.

All of this, even though we purposely went around enemy troops even at the expense of leaving our supply line vulnerable and had the avoidance of civilian casualites a centerpiece of our strategy?

Yeah, nothing impressive about that.

[MikeAtTheShore]

"I am sure that Syria is so very UN-impressed right about now!"

And North Korea and Iran also..........LOL

[cariboo]

Agree or not, the commentary from Spain was reasoned and genuine. I'd hoped to read some intelligent, conservative rebuttal or explanation. Instead I see mostly defensive jingoism - which simply confirms the point made by the guy in Spain.

[Michael81Dus]

I´ve to disappoint you: 80% of the reactions to European developments, news sound like that. Jingoism is what many here live!

AMERICA FIRST! WE ARE THE BEST AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE BEST! EVERYONE WHO DARES TO CLAIM THE OPPOSITE IS A EUROWEENIE, PEACENIK, TRAITOR ETC.!!

:-( I´m glad that YOU are here. :)

[lurky]

Dude, I'm with you the whole way.

[lurky]

Oh, and this : I'd hoped to read some intelligent, conservative rebuttal or explanation...good luck on your search.

[okie01]

Dwight F. Reynolds: "Ph.D., Department of Folklore & Folklife - University of Pennsylvania"

Professor of Arablic Language & Literature, Islamic Culture.

You don't suppose being an Arabist colored Dr. Reynolds' view of the war, do you?

Naaaaaaaah....

"There are none so deluded as those who will not think."