Re: unfair to bush (yeah, so?)


Subject: Re: unfair to bush (yeah, so?)
From: Jive Monkey (monkey_jive@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 19 2000 - 16:09:30 GMT


devils advocacy

so, was it wrong to get involved in desert storm, then? certainly political
gain was made, political gain can be had from almost any event. did
un-dubya somehow commit evil by charging in and liberating the supposedly
poor, defenseless kuwaiti's? how about the political and economic stability
which the war was really fought for, was it wrong for the u.s. to go for
that? certainly the u.s. and canada, and most other nations, have benefited
from that stability. the fact that political gain was had, was, i believe,
secondary to the fact of maintaining and preserving american economic
interests, and , by default, the economic interests of americas allies. it
was a war about oil, not about someone's ego. furthermore saddam husseins
head on a stick was almost certainly never a goal of powell or any other
strategist in that war. the propaganda against saddam himself was just
that, propaganda. the fact is that he is a known quantity in iraq, someone
who the us has dealt with in the past, and will continue to deal with long
into the future, because that's the safest bet for america. he's been
beaten and he's not too likely to stick his neck out again. on the other
hand, when he's gone, who knows what nut might take over for him? american
politicians know all about the theory of the lesser of two evils. lastly,
freedom of information is a dirty word to military brass, always has been,
always will be. abraham lincoln suspended freedom of the press during the
civil war and he's a national hero. the stark reality of freedom of
information is that it will exist as long as enough people gain power
through it. once it becomes too much of a threat, it's gone, no matter how
much we may respect it, no matter who's in power.

andy
ac

From: kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca (Paul Kennedy)
Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
Subject: Re: unfair to bush (yeah, so?)
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 14:41:19 -0500 (EST)

*ACTIVATE POLITICAL FILTER*

> why
>does colin powell make me nauseous?
>
>andy
>

When I was but a wee whippersnap of a young journalist, bottom-feeding among
the on-air functionaries at the CBC, there occurred a horrible international
incident that was variously called "The Gulf War" or "Desert
Storm"--depending upon whether you read the specially-spin-doctored press
releases approved by Gen. Colin Powell.

The idiots who then ran this organization (the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation) decided that Canada's participation in this little desert
dustup by definition put the national broadcaster into a wartime emergency
situation. I was assigned the task of hosting the special national
emergency programming from 12:00 am to 4:00 am, every night. I did not make
friends among the big brass by walking through the halls all day long, using
my deepest basso profundo voice to publicly practise the words: "Hi, I'm
Paul Kennedy, Voice of War from Midnight to Four".....

(For those of you who are REALLY old, I should provide some Canadian
historical context for the above paragraph. In the darkest days of World
War II, Lorne Green was a famous CBC announcer. The idiosyncratic way that
he spoke the words that opened propagandistic wartime broadcasts earned him
the nickname "Voice of Doom".... Of course, Lorne Green later went on to be
Papa Cartwright on "Bonanza", but I digress....)

My daughter was still in daycare when the "war" broke out.... When I picked
her up, I tried to explain the situation, but I was having trouble
explaining why my country had decided to go to "war".... She asked where
the war was taking place. I told her it was in a desert..... "Oh NO!, Dad",
she wailed.... "Some of the soldiers will probably prick themselves on the
cactusses and get hurt!" I'm sure I cried when she said that.

My personal problems with Colin Powell: 1/ George W. Bush's father used
that war to virtually quadruple his approval rating with the American
people....
                                          2/ Colin Powell proved that a free
press (or even freedom of information) are of no concern whatsoever to
him....
                                          3/ George W. will probably go
through periods where his popularity bottoms out almost as deep as his
daddy's did, just before it became time to win friends and influence the
American public by waging an unreal foreign war.
                                          4/ Gen. Colin Powell drew a big
line in the sand, but he never won the prize--Saddam Hussein's head on a
stick.

I don't like the chemistry.

What did you say were the proper ingredients for Tom Collins?

Cheers,

Paul

OSR--I'm disappointed to learn that on page 77 of my mustard paperback
edition of RHtRBC, Jerry does not specify the brand of scotch that Buddy
drinks four full fingers of in the kitchen.... Probably a blend.... B &
B....? Johnny Walker....? Cutty Sark?

OSR#2--I wonder whether there's anything of oracular relevance in "Just
Before the War with the Eskimos"? How about this one: Compare the
metaphorical use of tennis balls in Salinger's JBtWwtE and Shakespeare's
Henry V.

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