[P1] self-quotes

[Jack Rodgers]

On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 10:31  PM, Eric B. Richardson wrote:

> Iraq is up to the roots of it's scalp hairs in bloody terrorism, and 
> the sooner Saddam is taken out of the picture and Iraq liberated the 
> safer the world will be.

I might point out to any and all who advocate this idea, that it is a 
theory only and not an absolute. Actually I think it is little more 
than rhetoric generated to gain public support.

The other side of the theory is that doing so will inflame the muslim 
world and lead to a much larger terrorist problem. After all, President 
Johnson used an attack by a tiny PT boat on a gigantic American warship 
(the pt boat did zero damage and didn't even hit the warship) as a 
pretext to expand the war on the North Vietnamese. The US took over 
from the French who got their butts kicked and started with just 300 
advisers which eventually became 500,000 soldiers and 50,000 dead 
Americans.

We are most likely entering very dangerous times and the freedom and 
safety we have enjoyed in the US during my lifetime seems to becoming a 
memory rather than a fact. We should also consider that our freedoms 
are based on oil as well as our security. When the oil reserves run out 
our abilities to 'rule the world' will also run out and our abilities 
to defend ourself will also be diminished. Imagine if you can what our 
country would be like without oil.

To think that even killing Sadamn will eliminate terrorism is 
absolutely stupid... There are hundreds and perhaps thousands of 
fanatical religious leaders trying to fan the flames of their brand of 
fundamentalism and terror. Notice I did not say muslim and I definitely 
include Christian and Jewish religious leaders in that statement.

How long has Israel tried to defeat terrorism using $100 Billion 
dollars in American military aid and still hasn't achieved security.

We are seeing how futile our efforts have been in Afghanistan as the 
Taliban and AQ that fled to Pakistan begin to return. Frankly I think 
our efforts were terribly mismanaged and we failed to box them in and 
instead let them flee.

The big loophole in the theory of squashing Sadamn is that we helped 
put him in power and we don't know what the next guy we put in power 
will be like. Who was that guy in Haiti we recently helped get elected 
and what is going on down there now? More terror, different leader.

Muslim revolutionaries are taking over various countries and converting 
them to their form of religious government. The same thing happened in 
what we now call the United States when European countries arrived in 
the Americans and began using violence to take over the land. And again 
when a small band of rebels, traitors from some people's point of view, 
rose up against the British Government and those slave owners formed a 
new government ignoring the rights of women and slaves. The same thing 
happened in Palestine when Europeans and Americans began arriving in 
that area and terrorism and war established the state of Israel. Money 
and weapons flowed to them from supporters in foreign countries.

Terrorism was used to create the US, Israel, the British Empire, etc. 
Every European nation has a history of terrorism against its own people 
and in taking over the lands of other people.

Today Terrorism has been capitalized and history swept under the rug by 
the talking heads. We are being trained to shudder when we think of how 
terrible the muslim fanatics are and to call traitors those who point 
out that our history is just as bloody and violent and oppressive. 
Christians used to drown witches and Jews stoned to death unwed 
mothers, homosexuals and prostitutes.

Having lived through the Cold War and watched Communism being spread 
through terrorism from country to country and watched dictators that 
the US supported terrorize their population, I thought the world may 
have finally reached some equilibrium. But now we have the muslim 
fanatics doing the same thing the Communists did and the US did. Not to 
mention the fact that we we are making wealthy Communist China which 
seems to make almost everything made in America. Russia failed because 
they weren't capitalistic enough.

We have a new problem and it is one that is quite similar to the way 
the US and Israel were formed. Small groups of people meet and begin 
nibbling away on the giant. They plot. They plan. They engage in 
terrorism. They raise a flag and seek help from mightier nations.

Violence and bloodshed seem to be a constant human companion along with 
the belief that if we kill a certain group of people we will have 
everlasting peace. I'm not sure if this is quite true but the US seems 
to be the nation with the longest history of being free of a foreign 
invader within its borders. The mighty oceans protected us. Now we have 
the airliners bringing the enemy in disguise to our shores. If we think 
that bombing Sadamn will bring peace, what about the enemy that lives 
among us?

---
I propose that all elections for public office be advanced two years so 
that anyone elected to office can serve a two year jail term for the 
crimes they are about to commit and that we will probably find hard to 
prove.
Jack Rodgers

Email: jackrodgers at earthlink.net
Web:  www.jackrodgers.com
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