Robert Ashcroft's letter and feedback on it

[dave evans]

Hi All,

My point, as picked up by some people, is that the US is not, was not, never
will be the Utopian paradise for all that it was portrayed as in the letter
which was posted on this list, which was kind of borne out by the utterly
xenophobic reaction of this respondent (from the US, I guess- the email
address seems to be Syracuse University?):

" From:    Ted Jackson <tojackso at LIBRARY.SYR.EDU>
> Subject: Re: BOC-L Digest - Robert Ashcroft's letter
>
> On 3 Oct 2001, at 15:27, dave evans wrote:
>
> > re " The U.S.  was the first country born out of the Enlightenment"
> >
> > which would never have happened without Arabic science, btw
> >
 So I guess you've already booked your one-way ticket to the Middle East?"

Reminds me of the early 80s in England; any expressions of interest in
Socialism were countered with cries of "well go to Russia then". Sad.

and yes, it is way off topic; so put it somewhere else, not here- and on a
list about the Hawks, which in Calvert's time especially were lyrically
scathing about them folks over the pond, it seems a very strange place to
post it. Personally I'm more pissed off that my continuing ambitions to see
**more** of the middle, near and far east are going to be delayed by this
than just about anything else; considerably more people die each year in the
various famine and flood hotspots of the world; most of which can also be
causally linked to man's involvement/interference/stupidity/warmongering,
and a lot of the West doesn't even notice. This New York thing happened live
on TV, in the richest country in the world, with the best technology to save
the survivors, so are we supposed to care *more*, less , or the same?

and as for the philanthropic rebuilding of conquered places so they were
stronger than before their invasions, i guess the inhabitants of Dresden,
Hiroshima, Nagasaki etc would have preferred things the way they were?

Anyway; this is miles off list......... I can't get to the gigs next week so
i look forward to reading about them here, and politics ***elsewhere***
yeah?
thanks
dave