At last, something meaty to get into and read. OK, so it is not AOM. At least let us thrash this out.
I am not too hot at HTML so there won't be any fancy quotes in here, but if you have read through you will pick out some of the things I refer to.
OK, first off. America is really anti-terrorism, and they go balls-out to cream any terrorism organisation who raises their ugly head. Right? Wrong! Where were they when the IRA were conducting terror campaigns on the UK mainland? I'll tell you where - they were conducting pro-Irish rallies, collecting money for the terrorists, visiting the Sinn Feinn politicians and patting them on the back because they can trace their lineage to some bloke who emigrated to the USA about 200 years ago. Remember the bomb that nearly wiped out the ceremonial cavalry in London? Bombs in shop windows? What about Manchester City Centre? What about all the atrocities in Northern Ireland? Bombs in Town Halls and another bomb at the evacuation point to take out 5-6 times more innocent civilians? Snipers taking out policemen? Where was America then? Did you see them boldly and courageously coming to the rescue, invading Ireland and relentlessly pursuing Gerry Adams until he either gave himself up or committed suicide? No. There is no oil in Ireland.
OK, I am English. I see things from an English point of view. But I still don't agree with British troops over there. Some of the things that go on are an utter disgrace. But it is the Irish fighting between themselves - the troops are proper peacekeepers. If the few Brit troops pulled out there would be carnage. I personally vote to pull out and leave them to it. You never know, we might see an end to the relentless stream of God-awful bloody boy-bands that come from there!
Israel. Israel was a country that was created after WW2. It resulted from the millions of Jewish refugees from Europe fleeing the Nazi expansion and having nowhere to go to. Unsurprisingly they didn't want to go back to Germany and the other places they were forced out of. Britain and the US carved out an area in the Middle East that the UK were governing at the time and said 'There you go - crack on.' It does not surprise me in the slightest that the Arabs have an issue with that. They tried to do something about it in the 70s and got a right good hiding as a result. Did America do anything to assist then? I was too young to remember, but all the military hardware was USA provided. You'd think that the Arabs would have come to terms with it by now, but remember what previous experience the Middle-East has of the decadent West. Look what happened in the Crusades. No oil in Palestine.
Remember the 80s. USA had a big anti-Iran thing going on. The USA Embassy was overrun. I seem to remember lots of USA support to Iraq to persuade them to attack Iran. Nice. That backfired a bit. Also, as has already been mentioned, the USA also assisted the Afghans against the Russians (so did we! Ooops).
And what is this rubbish about no-one daring to conduct terrorist attacks against the USA? Do you watch the news? What happened on 9/11? What happened at the Embassies in Africa? What about the CIA building (or was it the FBI building)? Abortion clinics? Animal Liberation organisations? I'll tell you a country that has nothing to fear from terrorists - Belgium. When was the last time you heard of a terrorist attack in Belgium?
America is defensive and non-aggressive? What about violent crime? Murder rates? The right to carry firearms in public - what is that all about? I know they are internal problems, but problems nonetheless.
I cannot get inside the heads of terrorists to understand what makes them tick. But remember that the victor rights the history. How glorious were the defenders of Stalingrad, or the French Resistance in WW2? They both conducted a terrorist/guerilla campaign to hold the Germans. What about the American War of Independence? Wasn't that a form of terrorist campaign? Didn't the 'Patriots' skulk around and fight from the shadows, ambush British patrols, bomb the barracks, knife people in bars? If they had had weapons of mass destruction would they have used them?
The Gulf War. Yes, Saddam's intention was to conquer a larger portion of the Middle-East oil fields to increase his influence on the World stage. He got his backside spanked and the nation has suffered ever since. The Bush administration wants to invade. To what end? Remove Saddam? I guarantee that whoever comes to power next (his son?) will be worse. There is a lot of oil in Iraq!
North Korea has developed weapons of mass destruction. They hate the USA, generally. Has any attempt been made to do invade them and remove the weapons? No way! That is another war that can't be won - the USA has been in South Korea for 50 years now! And there is no oil!
Let's face it, things are not all black-and-white in this world. I am sure that these terror organisations believe that they are fighting for the cause of truth and justice. If they win, that is how it will be portrayed. We may not see what they do. But those USA-o-philes out there have got to realise at some time that the USA government foreign policy is aggressive, as long as there is money to be made. Iraq cannot possibly be a direct threat to the USA, except in the economic market. Perhaps this is what they fear so much.
And now the thread gets closed!!