On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 06:00:13 -0700, The Independent wrote:




Alan Connor wrote:

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 07:06:16 GMT, Gunner wrote:



snip

Welcome back, Gunner.

I had no doubt at all.

Nor do I see any need to coddle a tough son-of-a-bitch like you:


That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell

No. Rifles are the symbol of brutal conquest, which is just a fancy
term for armed robbery on a large scale.

Ballot boxes are the symbol of democracy.

There are a WHOLE lot of people with a LOT of weapons that
don't have any democracy...Not a ballot box in sight.

Duh.

:-)

Does America's violence around the world create democracy? Try
this little quizz:

It consists of one (1) multiple-choice question. Here's a list of the
countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II,
compiled by historian William Blum:

1. China 1945-46
2. Korea and China 1950-53
3. Guatemala 1954
4. Indonesia 1958
5. Cuba 1959-1961
6. Guatemala 1960
7. Congo 1964
8. Peru 1965
9. Laos 1964-73
10. Vietnam 1961-73
11. Cambodia 1969-70
12. Guatemala 1967-69
13. Grenada 1983
14. Lebanon 1983, 1984
15. Libya 1986
16. El Salvador 1980s
17. Nicaragua 1980s
18. Iran 1987
19. Panama 1989
20. Iraq 1991-2003
21. Kuwait 1991
22. Somalia 1993
23. Bosnia 1994, 1995
24. Sudan 1998
25. Afghanistan 1998, 2001-2004
26. Yugoslavia 1999
27. Iraq 2002-2004

Q: In how many of these instances did a democratic government,
respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result?

Choose one of the following:

(a) 0
(b) zero
(c) none
(d) not a one
(e) a whole number between -1 and +1
(f) zip
(g) squat
(h) nada

(i) who cares?

AC

The object is to stomp them so hard the first time that they wont want
to mess with us again.

Fear is the best motivate, ask a Zebra running from a lion.

Better yet, visit Israel, where they follow your strategy assidiously.

Wonderful place: Frightened and angry youths with automatic weapons on every
corner and not a safe place in the entire country.

They also have a military that is immensely superior to that posessed
by their enemies and have killed at least 10 of them for every Israeli
casualty.

Yet they have no peace and no security.

You can talk to zebras if you want. I prefer to observe human behavior
and its results and draw my conclusions from those observations.


AC