(TV) well...

[Keith Allison <keith@marquee.demon.co.uk>]

In message <20010920133315.77107.qmail@web11003.mail.yahoo.com>, Philip
P. Obbard <pobbard@yahoo.com> writes
>(Keith, don't take this the wrong way, but of course the UK has a role in this
>too - 

I won't, and of course you're correct. To the shame of both our
countries. I wouldn't dream of objecting to my country being used, in
the past, (Cruise missiles etc.) as a US aircraft carrier without
acknowledging the fact that previous UK governments have desperately
wanted the US to be our friend/guardian to the extent of Thatcher
bending over backwards to make it easier for Reagan to let her have it,
if you see what I mean.

>as the US's "junior partner" (the words of a British diplomat after WW2,
>not mine!) we tend to move in tandem on who we help, hurt, or bomb. 

Agreed. And while there are those here who are proud of it, there are
also those of us who aren't.

>but Thatcher certainly supported the
>anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan in the 1980s. 

An evil woman. We're talking here about a leader of a so-called "free"
country who sank an Argentinian ship that was heading _away_ from the
area, just to start a war. The government needed a war at the time to
detract attention away from all the other freedoms it was curtailing.

>If you want to voice
>dissent against the build-up, you can start at home. 

I have done, many times. It gets you about as far as you would get going
on tv in the States and begging for reasoned, thoughtful behaviour from
Bush. He needs a war right now, don't you think? What else is he going
to do? Do you really think his ultimate agenda concerns much beyond his
own future?

>If the UK would not
>support our current course, you can bet we'll soften our tone).

Somehow I doubt it.
>
What happened in the US last week was an obscene crime against people.
It's been happening on a smaller scale in Britain and in other parts of
the world for at least the last thirty years. Just as much of the
finance for the IRA has come from America, so there's a good chance that
any "Western" soldier who gets killed in Afghanistan will be killed by a
weapon sold to "the enemy", behind the scenes,  either by Britain or the
CIA. Money has always talked louder than any flag, even yours.

My country has a long, long history of interference in, and destruction
of, other people ways of life. Only an idiot would be proud of this.
Your country has a much shorter history of doing the same thing. But,
sooner or later, there's a price to be paid. I would like to hope that
it won't be paid in more lives, but you know as well as I do that that's
unlikely.

Sorry, I didn't mean to rant. I agree with what you said. It's just
that, over here, we see an awful lot of flag-waving. Within a couple of
hours of it happening, the plane crashing into the WTC, and the Stars
and Stripes, had been turned into a _logo_, for God's sake!
-------------
Keith Allison
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk
"The Wonder - Tom Verlaine, Television & Stuff"
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"