In article <
[email protected]>, "J.Ouellet" <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Again :-( ..... a "patriot" targeting France ?!?
>
> Better leave politics to politicians...and talk Cycling!
That is certainly not the American way! ;-)
> Dont forget that France's position and opposition to the present invasion war of Irak, is
> also shared by Germany, Russia, China, Canada, and most nations of the World ! France is not
> alone, oh no!
Well, about 70% of Americans support the war in Iraq; about 80% of Europeans do not. In the rest
of the world, public opinion against the war is even higher- perhaps only in Israel is there
another nation with strong popular support for this war. This may be the least popular war of the
last 100 years.
Perhaps part of this is that Europeans have had two major, devastating wars on their soil in the
past century. Americans haven't had a major war on US soil since the Civil War- no one alive
remembers it. Europeans have dealt with terrorism for decades, small scale attacks; Americans have
dealt with two catastrophic terrorist attacks courtesy of Timothy McVeigh and Al Quaeda, both in the
past 10 years or so. We have a longstanding fear of weapons of mass destruction thanks to the Cold
War, Mutually Assured Destruction and hundreds of school films about "duck and cover."
As a result the outlook on war is different. Add to that a Cabinet populated with people who have
been planning a war against Iraq to restore American military prestige, and all that was needed was
a match and a President with little understanding about international issues. The Supreme Court
provided the President, Al Quaeda provided the match- hell, a blowtorch. We're going to kick Saddam
Hussein's ass not because it will make us safer, but because we think it will make us *feel* safer.
Unfortunately that will come at the cost of thousands of innocent lives and decades of increased
risk for terrorism and the essentially permanent emnity of a billion people around the world.