Cary responded...
> >You seem a bit angry.  Did you not sleep well last night?
>
> Like a baby.....you seem a bit jaded, though.

ROFL.  Thank you.  I needed that laugh.  That was great.

>  Seriously, though, I don't
> recall saying that everything in America is perfect, that all of our
leaders
> have squeaky clean, unquestionable integrity, etc.
>
> Some of your statements echo those of the isolationists of the earlier
part
> of last century.  History has proved their view wrong, much to the dismay
of
> the millions of people who were slaughtered while we played "pocket pool."
>
> I stand by my statements that ours is the best form of government.  My
ideas
> of world government may not really be very popular in this country, but I
> stand by them, too.

And more power to you for it.  My point, said with not so much clarity, is
that we Americans often make ourselves out to be the greatest thing since
sliced bread for every situation, every people and every culture; and it's
just not true.

Is a democratic republic, or more correctly a society in which we all argue
and fight for the freedoms we all wish to enjoy (think Voltair) even when we
disagree with them, the best of all known ways to live?  You becha!  H, e,
double toothpicks, I even think Denys gets a few right.  ;)   But, even if
he didn't, I'd still fight for his freedom to be wrong.

That doesn't mean I don't think we should invite ourselves to fewer parties.
I'm reminded of being a teenager in Virginia Beach and knowing that those
people who showed up between Memorial and Labor Days did put 60+% of the
money into the pile for the year, but it was so much nicer when they finally
went back to where they came from!  In retrospect, I wonder if that is some
part of why the change from late summer to early autumn is my favorite time
of the year.

Anywho, I think the world sort of sees us like that.  Thanks for your money.
Now leave.

> I disagree completely with the idea that freedom and
> equality for all peoples of the world would be bad for business.  Indeed,
I
> say it would be just the opposite.

I didn't say that freedom and equality for all people would be bad for
business.  I said that PEACE would be bad for business, because we all know
that war is good for business.  And ipso, facto...

> I also disagree that there is some push
> to "install" a puppet government in Iraq to "improve our influence over
> world oil markets."  That idea is ludicrous and just doesn't hold water.

I didn't say we would install a puppet government.  I said installing a
favorable government would improve our influence over the global oil market;
because installing a government more in tune with our way of thinking would
mean one more likely to make decisions in a way that is favorable to us.  We
don't have to take overt action (via puppet strings) to be influencial.
When a younger brother tries to be like his big brother, the older sibling
is not telling the younger sibling what to do; but the younger brother ends
up doing things the same way the older brother would have.

> I
> would again point you to the fact that Iraq represents a "drop in the
> bucket" of world oil production.  Why spend hundreds of billions and
> priceless lives to "influence?"   One could achieve far greater results
> using one tenth the amount of money spread among the other OPEC nations.
> Money is the only thing that persuades better than bombs....assuming, of
> course, that you are dealing with rational people and not Saddam Hussein.

Yes, size matters; but the important idea is that a democratic power in the
middle east, an oil producing one at that, would be a calming influence
(that word again) on the region and provide a better *example* of how to get
along with the western world.

> Cary

Rs~

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