[opendtv] Re: Channel approval process

  • From: "JCW0" <jcw0@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 12:45:57 -0400

For me the important question is how best to secure the benefits of Western
Civilization for Westerners, their descendants, and other peoples wanting to
join the party.

The world, like Mr. Manfredi's bush is unruly.  America, like Mr. Manfredi,
is best equipped to do something about it, and is drawn by internal and
external pressures to act.   Acting, in both cases apparently, has
consequences.

You can say with confidence that "Monroe Doctrine...has been very good to
Latin American nations".  Having lived in Latin America, I can say with
equal confidence that you would not have to travel far there to find
thinking people who resent Monroe and other US policies and feel that those
policies have worked to the detriment of Latin America and poor Latin
Americans in particular.  Dismissing them as leftists does not change the
fact that the resentment is real.

By all reports, current events have greatly increased hatred of the West in
Islamic and particularly Islamic Arab countries.

You trace current terrorism to the government of Iran of 1979.  That
disastrous government came to power in a popular revolution to overthrow a
hated tyrant, the Shah, who was installed in a British and US backed coup
that overthrew a government that was trying to nationalize the oil industry.

Al-Qaida, as an organization, can be traced directly to the Mujahedin in
Afghanistan who were partly financed and equipped by the US in their efforts
to overthrow the Soviet-backed government of the day.

My point is that reshaping the world is fraught with unintended consequences
and inevitably leads to deep resentments.  Liking being told what to do is
rare enough among people to be considered a perversion!

If I ever buy my sailboat and leave port, I will be happy that the US Navy,
rather than chaos, rules the seas.  The laying of the keel of the George H.
W. Bush, the latest Nimitz class carrier, does not make me feel much safer
though.   Recent events lead me to fear the generational hatred of the
Islamicists more than the possible consequences of pulling back a bit.

Having given up on shutting up...



John Wrigglesworth



-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of John Willkie
Sent: June 16, 2004 12:07 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Channel approval process

Heck, I don't know even roughly what the US would look like if the US
returned to its founding principles of limited central government and
staying out of foreign entanglements.  I would note that we rather quickly
abandoned it, at least as applies to this hemisphere: the Monroe Doctrine is
still in force, and has been very good to Latin American nations, keeping
Germany in the early 1900s from exploiting weaknesses in Colombia and
Ecuador, for example.

I'm not a significant critic of the military exploits of the current
administration, however.  I see this continuum that began with the adoption
of a revolutionary, expansionist, militaristic and terrorist government in
Iran in 1979 and their fostering of indigenous movements in many countries
similarly situated.  Perhaps others see that as a given.

I never took the Soviet Union as a given.  While not a particular fan of
Ronald Reagan while he was in office, his "evil empire" (before the Nat'l
Assoc of Evangelicals) and "tear down this wall" (in Berlin) speeches were
like "dawn breaking over Marblehead" for me.

Further along that time line, I see the attacks of September 11, 2001.  I
think that the administration's response is the beginning of the end of the
continuum, or the lack of such a response as the beginning of the end of the
United States and Western society.  For eight years, we had an
administration that was too concerned with 'good times' to pay attention to
these facts, so the attacks got worse.  Seems to me that the period between
9/11 and today is somewhat less troublesome as applies to domestic incidents
than the period that preceded it.

I don't see this administration as causing any bad situations as much as
them finally dealing with what was extant.  Of course, there are adaptive
behaviors on the other sides.  Heck, let them kill Iraqis.  While Saddam was
in power, who outside of a small circle of friends, gave a hoot?

I had a lark the other day.  Since September 11, 2001, more than a handful
of U.S. citizens have pled guilty to fomenting terrorism in the U.S.  As a
item for further study, I thought it might be interesting to construct a
database of those convicted or who pled guilty, and see what political
parties, if any, these "Americans" were registered with.  I should also
point out that I am not a member of any political party.

John Willkie



-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of JCW0
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 7:37 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Channel approval process


I do not pretend to know precisely what the world would look like if the US
returned its founding principles of limited central government and staying
out of foreign entanglements.

I do know that the course of the current administration scares the heck out
of me.


JW

P.S.  I am trying to stay shut up...

-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Manfredi, Albert E
Sent: June 16, 2004 9:05 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Channel approval process

> However, U.S. troops are stationed in more than one
> hundred countries.  The U.S. spends more on arms than the
> next five top spenders combined.

Whew. That's a stretch.

It also annoys me tremendously when my wife complains about
how I trim the bushes. I do it only because no one else will,
not because I'm trying to assert sole ownership or control
over these plants, nor because it's a pastime I enjoy.

I can assure you, there are legions of Americans who would
prefer the US got its troops the hell out of all these places,
including Iraq. But the rest of the world didn't exactly
approve of how long it took the Clinton administration to
move into the Balkans, did it? Or how the US did not take
decisive action in Rwanda? I'll bet a goodly sum that the US
will similarly be blamed for "not doing more" about the Sudan
now.

Perhaps the excuse "for not doing more" should be that this
isn't an imperialist nation. Somehow, that would sound lame.

Bert


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