[Sir Kenyth]

Originally posted by Diogenes Of Pumpkintown: In the history of our country, you mean? Well, the major incidents would include the long, hundred year conquest and virtual extermination of the Indians (the rougly hundred years following the founding of the Unites States -- actually a bit longer than that) in one shameful episode of US agression after another; the War with Mexico, in which the US helped trump up incidents in an excuse to conquer and claim half of what was then Mexico; certainly the Civil War if viewed from the point of view of the US gov't fighting to preserve a big chunk of its territory by gunpoint (We southerners find it much easier to view the War of Northern Aggression in that way ), the Spanish American war, where a mysterious explosion on the Battleship Maine in Havana, Cuba was used politically as a reason to gobble up what remained of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Pacific (this is how we acquired the Phillipines, for example, treating it as a colony in part of our Manifest Destiny Empire, including the brutal suppression of rebellion against us by our military), and of course the long, sordid series of military interventions in Central and South America, the latest such being Panama by George Bush Sr., which if you will recall was the case of a US invasion and takeover of the country, without a single shot having been fired at us first, in your words. We participated in the Western Domination and carving up of China, suppressed the Chinese in the Boxer Rebellion, and helped hold sway over China allied with europeans until the people became so sick of our version of western influence that they turned by their millions to the Communists and the support of the Soviet Union and drove the Westerners out. Of course there was Vietnam, in which we killed over a million people for no particular good reason at all. The Middle East has long been a sore point. After the great victory of World War II the US dominated the region, along with her ally Britain, who was at that point fast losing grip on her old empire to the US. We supported such ruthless, bloody, tyrants as the Shah of Iran, who suppressed his people with such extremes as torture. We armed him, supplied him, kept him in power with the assistance of the CIA, all because we could work with him for oil. The Iranian people sure took that as a first attack by the US. Can't same I blame them. Okay, that was just a quick summary of how the US is in no position to claim that it never is the aggressor.

Let's stay within a relatively recent period. The wars throughout history are countless and are from a different time. My point was that we never have military action by US troops against someone who has not aggressed someone else first. As far as supplying certain groups goes, I think more than one country has played in that little political chess game. We're not perfect, but I'm happy with us. Tell you what, if it's so terrible here I can probably get a collection going to buy you a one way ticket to the middle eastern anti-american country of your choice. Why don't you go see if they love you too? Ya know, all kissy kissy and such. That is, if your plane doesn't get blown up first.

[This message has been edited by Sir Kenyth (edited 09-27-2001).]