From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,dbd35bb508093bd9 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-17 07:41:11 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!proxad.net!peer1.news.newnet.co.uk!mephistopheles.news.clara.net!news.clara.net!server3.netnews.ja.net!newshost.central.susx.ac.uk!news.bton.ac.uk!not-for-mail From: John English Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: OT Hatred (was Re: New Ada compiler for .NET) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 13:03:57 +0000 Organization: University of Brighton Message-ID: <3DFF20BD.A58113F5@brighton.ac.uk> References: <3DEA5CC0.6B435E66@adaworks.com> <3df55f03_2@news.tm.net.my> <1039531607.289271@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3DF7362A.87F9FDA6@brighton.ac.uk> <1039618334.652640@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <2ttK9.2461$X56.125646@newsfep1-gui.server.ntli.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: straumli.it.bton.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: saturn.bton.ac.uk 1040130210 26135 193.62.183.204 (17 Dec 2002 13:03:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@bton.ac.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 17 Dec 2002 13:03:30 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31961 Date: 2002-12-17T13:03:30+00:00 List-Id: Hyman Rosen wrote: > > So apparently all you liberal folks are in agreement that it's > NK's mighty armed forces which are keeping the US at bay. Kind > of stands pacifism on its head, though. Not at all. The point I was trying to make was about the US government's double standards -- it says Iraq should be regime-changed because it has ignored UN resolutions (as has Israel), has weapons of mass destruction (as do Israel, N.Korea, India, Pakistan...), has invaded other countries (over a decade ago, as have Russia, the US and others), has backed terrorism (as the US did with the IRA, Contras and others) and is a dictatorship (as is Pakistan and N.Korea)... but only Iraq out of all these gets slated for regime change. Other possibilities have been suggested as motives (to gain control of Iraqi oil; to distract attention from the mess that remaining in Afghanistan; to get Bush re-elected in a frenzy of patriotic fervour; to distract attention from the continuing failure to nobble Osama bin Laden); and personally, I find these a lot more credible than the ostensible reasons that the White House is giving out. Meanwhile we have the government of the land of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being responsible for execution without trial of some people in a jeep in Yemen, who they claim were some of Osama's big cheeses (hard to verify now!) and hundreds more are locked up in Cuba with neither trial, access to a lawyer or even the protection of the Geneva Convention. So it appears to many outside the US that the US government is acting, not as a global policeman, but as a global school bully. It seems to believe that it can imprison foreign nationals without trial, tear up international treaties, and impose "regime change" on foreign states (even if democratically elected, as in Chile) if it feels like it. In the light of all this, you should perhaps try harder to understand why the rest of the world finds it easy to mistrust the US government's motives. (Note that I distinguish the US goverment from its citizens -- why, some of my best friends are Americans... ;-) ----------------------------------------------------------------- John English | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk Senior Lecturer | http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/je Dept. of Computing | ** NON-PROFIT CD FOR CS STUDENTS ** University of Brighton | -- see http://burks.bton.ac.uk -----------------------------------------------------------------