Most young people take everything for granted. It isn't until
their baby, mother, sister, etc have been killed that they then
understand. I hate the prospects of many thousands of innocent
people being killed because of war, but I also hate to think how
many would die without it.
I really hope a peaceful solution can be worked out. The thing
that really dissapoints me about all this is that even if there
were a war, it still doesn't address the threat of terrorism. But
that is something that anti-war fanatics haven't figured out what
to do either.
The only way to deal with terrorists is to befriend the countries
where the hate originates to the point that their own people will
turn on the terrorists themselves and stop supporting them and
sympathising with them. And this is a very hard thing to do. And
the sad part is that often the first step is war.
i will tell you another thing suppose saddam gave bio and chemical
weapons to al queada and they use it against me here in new york..
i will come loooking for you and haunt you why you didnt protest
against saddam and for the usa my blood will be on your conscience
You have the First Amendment written there in the Constitution. We
have the same rights granted here in Europe, too (and we owe much
for this to your fathers and grandfathers who came here to fight
for freedom against the two worst tyrant of the last century, and
then stayed here to face the theats from the third one - Stalin).
Poor Iraqi haven't, and never had.
But let me tell this:
I worked a few months in Qatar during the last year. One day at
sunrise I was travelling as usual from Doha city to our workplace
in the desert, sitting aside our van driver (an expatriate from
India, very good boy).
At once we saw a huge USAF cargo plane landing at the nearby US
military base. The driver's comment was "Look, YOUR friends are
coming ..."
The point is:
The guy didn't feel any sympathy for Saddam, or Osama, or any kind
of terrorists and tyrants. On the contrary, as I understood from
different talks, he was proud of the parliamentary democracy of his
own country. Nevertheless, he didn't love USA at all.
Are you aware this is the feeling of a few billions of people in
Asia, Africa and Latin America?
For us (Europeans) it's much more complicated. We have much in
common with US people (basically alll that is understuud as
Western Civilisation ). Most uf us look at your democrarcy as a
model (but also see some degenerative processes there). What really
hurts us, IMO, is the US government ruling over the whole world
with no consideration for our point of view (you vote for them, we
don't), and the arrogant way they are acquainted to use. How can
you pretend our consensus ? Yes, we bear heavy responsibilities
for this (e.g. UE countries UK, France, Italy, Germany, etc. are
never able to build a common foreign policy) it's ridiculous, just
like our military power ... But please consider that a serious
opinion poll here in Italy is showing about 70% of Italians are for
Peace wthout if and without but , i.e. the US war against Iraq
would not be justified in any case. Don't get driven wrong by the
different position of our government: you can like it or not, this
is the majority opinion all over Europe (maybe except Britain).
Also, there is an old man from Poland here in Rome, who strongly
disagrees with the US position on war to Iraq. He isn't a freak!
Please remember he alone made much more for causing the final
collapse of the Soviet power than any Star Shield planned by the R.
Reagan administration!
I would really appreciate your opinion on all that.
Yours sincerely.
Andres Bernhard (Rapick)
PS - Thanks a lot to Phil for letting us debate on the war issue
inside this forum - our lives are not just photography, after all -
and the First Amendment is still there.
--
beam me up scotty
im giving it all shes got captain
--
Brian
- C-7OO, and some other stuff
