"Spoilsports"

[Larissa]

I'm posting this on behalf of another person because I believe it can start and good debate.

"Listening to US military talking heads on American radio, it strikes me that what's most irksome about the French is not that they're ungrateful, or treacherous, or cowardly, but that they're spoilsports. America is about to fight a splendid war and the French are doing their damndest to spoil the fun. US army pundits say that US generals actually hope that our "allies" won't fight with "us" because they would only slow us down. We are so good at what we do, fighting wars, that no one else even comes close. The historian Eric Hobsbawn reckons that "The US will win the new Iraq war. There is no real doubt about that. They won it quickly in 1991 and there's no reason to suppose it will not be won quickly again." Simon Schama (a true master of English prose as well as a fine historian) reckons that "US is at the clumsy beginning of an imperial career, not the pathetic end of one."

A splendid little war. And a fun one, too. Because let's be honest, Iraqis aren't people. Let's hope that CNN and other networks will be responsible enough not to pay more than a bare minimum of attention to those irresponsible peaceniks who've gone to Iraq as "human shields." They're aiding and abetting the enemy, is what they're doing. Coddling a dictator.

I kid.

Saddam Hussein is a bloody dictator, but ordinary Iraqis are not to blame for this. Bombs will kill them too. And if there's an invasion, American soldiers will die too. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times reports that the Defense Personnel Support Center has recently ordered more than $400,000 for the likes of "Pouch, human remains, type II. Nylon; chloropene." Those pouches are meant for people, not for Iraqis.

As for the Eastern Europeans, it's only natural for them to want to be in the USA's good book. They'd be dumb to want to antagonize the biggest kid on the block. But I do find the Jacques Chirac's imperious threats to be unconscionable. One east European diplomat recently commented that not even the Soviet Union would have used such language with its satellites."

Paul

_________________________________
Paul Frank
English translation from Chinese, German,
French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian
La Forge, 1884 Huemoz, Switzerland

Comments?

[redstar2000]

"A splendid little war" was the phrase used by Teddy Roosevelt to describe the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century, resulting in the U.S. conquest of the Phillippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico...a century later, the U.S. is still in all three places, though its chunk of Cuba is rather cramped these days.

:cool:

[Guardia Bolivariano]

Yes Guantanamo is the last thing Cuba needs to get rid of the yanks for once and for all.But in PR the macheteros still have a lot of work.

[Disgustipated]

This "little war" will most likely be brought to us again in living color by our friends at CNN. Much like the last evening armchair war....Gulf War I. People watched it like it was an evening sitcom..

The only thing that will change views and minds here is if american soldiers start getting killed. I'm not sure the media will ever allow the body count that they used to do on the news during the Vietnam War days, but if they did...I think you would see a lot of people here, start to change their opinion of it.

It is true that generally people in the US don't consider anyone from the arab world a person though... I can't tell you how many derogatory names I've heard for them over the course of the last year.

[Arkham]

No one I know considers people from the gulf area less than human. The majority of people in America are decent, though often times easily led people. Don't let our leaders and corporate media mislead you as to our beliefs.