RE: (TV) well, again...

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

Keith, 
Thanks for what you just wrote, it 
(esp. your 3rd para) expresses a
lot of my own feelings.

	Leo

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Allison [mailto:keith@marquee.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 5:24 PM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: (TV) well, again... 


In message <20010920171927.64561.qmail@web13204.mail.yahoo.com>, Jay
Pontrelli <jaypontrelli@yahoo.com> writes
>Frankly, that's horseshit.  Bin Laden and his Taliban
>cronies must be terminated with extreme prejudice.

I'm sorry, but how exactly does this help (beyond fulfilling the need
for revenge)?

>  And thank goodness Britain is
>there to assist us while Europe sits on the sidelines.

It's a shame that the US never been there to assist us in our battles
against terrorism - too far away to make much impression, I guess.

Let's be honest here; Britain's assistance is neither here nor there.
The U.S. will do what it wants anyway, regardless of whether our
pathetic excuse for a left-wing government chooses to hang on to your
coat tails or not. We have little power in the world these days and
anyone with any sense in this country is aware that, if it suited your
government, it would roll right over us, secure in the belief that there
is nothing we could do about it. Reagan and Thatcher's "special
relationship" was, after all, no more special than any other
relationship between a bully and the pathetic weakling who hangs around
a bully in the hope that they'll get left alone by the other bullies who
are sniffing around.

Neither my country nor yours is guilt-free. I understand why some of the
Irish hate the English, much as I deplore their killing of innocent
people. Perhaps it might make a difference if more Americans stopped
claiming that America is the home of everything good and wonderful,
cradle of freedom, God's Own Country etc. and thought about why America
is so hated by so many people in the world. None of this, of course,
justifies what happened last week (nothing ever could) but surely you
have enough lunatic religious extremists in your country to understand
what people are capable of doing to each other because they think that
their god wants them to? If Pres. Bush's god is telling him to bomb the
hell out of Afghanistan then he offers no solution worthy of respect. If
he just wants, for whatever reason, to bomb the hell out of Afghanistan
anyway, then he should stop hiding behind all the flag-waving bullshit.

I just think all this goes beyond nationalism(s), don't you?

I am NOT anti-American. Last week, someone said, "Today we are all
Americans", and it was true. Not because we all subscribe to the same
bullshit but because such appalling events are an attack on everyone.
Civilisation, if you like. Decency. Goodness. Innocence. "Any man's
death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind" (John Donne). I
could, and did, weep when I think of all the people who died because
they happened to live and work in the US. 

I've just watched Tony Blair stare into the nation's living rooms and
babble on about friendship and support, doing his best to avoid saying,
"some of you are going to die". Anyone who joins the armed forces must,
at least, consider death as one of the consequences of their choice of
career; but there's a big difference between being willing to die for an
ideal you might have and being prepared to die for an ideal George Bush
might have. It is, as ever, all about politics; Bush is saying, "you're
either with us or against us" and Britain, of course, can't afford not
to be with you. He's blabbering on about conviction but, if the man had
any convictions at all, he'd be saying, "I will not send any of you to
die in Afghanistan."



-------------
Keith Allison
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk
"The Wonder - Tom Verlaine, Television & Stuff"
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