Subject: Uncle Tom Powell ?
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Wed Dec 20 2000 - 04:02:08 GMT
For once, I write in a genuinely detached spirit
of enquiry.
I'm quite amazed by the uninhibited abuse being
heaped on General Powell. This is quite simply
the first time in several years membership of list servs
I've ever seen an American black man given such derisive
treatment. Is it his membership of the military that
neutralises the protective effect of his dark skin?
I'm never surprised by moral outrage from Canadians -
they're naturally much, much nicer & decenter in every
way than the rest of us - but I hadn't realised that Americans
could be roused to such fury by what most of us hereabouts
see in much the same way as Andy does: a successful, limited
war to reverse a blatant invasion, readjust local power balances
& underpin our own oil supplies. It had a sensible rationale
with realistic aims - as opposed to the more recent folly
in the Balkans where our true interests were not involved
& which WAS largely fuelled by the vanity of a pair of
political pygmies. (And who, unlike both Bush & Powell,
knew nothing of the reality of war.)
The Gulf was the kind of operation - often followed by
chronic skirmishing on the frontiers - that imperial powers
have had to execute throughout history. Since we Brits
have laid down the main weight of the white man's burden
I personally am very grateful to see it now taken up by
my American cousins.
Scottie B.
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