Subj : Re: [OT] Iraq, USA, World, politics, etc. (Was Re: Mandrake vs Suse)
To   : comp.os.linux
From : Skip Cope
Date : Thu Aug 26 2004 05:18 pm

Willem van der Berg wrote:

> I am sorry for my negative tone Skip. I get frustrated too.
> Don't confuse people with government. I sincerely believe your leaders
> hold no principles whatsoever, except self-serving ones. Not that it's any
> different from other nation's leaders, it's just that yours have the
> ability to destroy us all. And that is scary stuff. For your own and our
> protection we need a strong Europe and China for example to keep your
> nation from abusing it's power. Like it has been doing for some years now.
> There is nothing wrong with your people, not more than there is wrong with
> 'my' people or the rest of the world.
> 

Thanks for your reply Willem, and my sincere apologies for refering to you
as hailing from Germany. I thought I'd read that somewhere in our exchange.
As for what we've exchanged, even though it's been somewhat negative, I'll
confess it has been thought provoking. I can wholeheartedly agree having a
balance of power in the world is a good thing, although within guidelines.
Having someone (Saddam) known for gasing his own people (the Kurds), well
he's not my idea of a stable world leader who should have nuclear weapons.
United Europe, sure, as well as China, but not a regime like the Husseins.

Thanks for saying there's nothing wrong with our people. Guess those words
were mainly what I wanted to hear. As a people, we're like any other, good
at heart and lovers of peace. And also like any other, we don't like to be
thought of as ignorant. I doubt that we're any more ignorant than the avg
citizen in any other country. We simply have differing viewpoints based on
what we learn. By the way, our media here in not fond of Bush. The media's
mostly made up of people from the Democratic party and Bush is Republican.
They take every opportunity to bash him, and media coverage can sway people
in an election. If Bush has put America in a bad world light and Americans
get fed up with that, someone else will become president & hopefully lead
us down a different path. We're not the best democracy on earth, but we
still have the power to elect leaders, unlike the former Iraq regime..

I'm sorry for any unpleasantness on my part within our exchange of ideas.
I'm actually very glad to learn from you, minus the few ruffled feathers
from implying I'm stupid :-). I'll take your advice & keep an open mind.
I'd love to share a few beers and discuss politics sometime. If you're ever
in the states, please keep that in mind. Have a great day. Sincerely, Skip

.