Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/07

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Subject: [Leica] BD's tilting at windmills WAS US Consumer Behavior
From: Johnny Deadman <lists@johnbrownlow.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:37:06 -0500

Gee, thanks, BD. And where exactly was the US in this conflict until 
Dec 7 1941?

Probably best not to try taking the moral high ground on this 
particular issue, I think.

Foreign policy is always driven by national interest, not morality or 
ethics, although that is how it is always dressed up. Even though WWII 
was as near to a just war as you will ever find, the British decision 
to go to war was only taken when it became manifestly apparent that 
Hitler's ambitions were continental if not global and that he wasn't 
going to be negotiated out of them.

It may be that in some moral and ethical frameworks (not mine, I hasten 
to add) it is right for the US to go to war with Iraq shortly. Even if 
that is so, it is quite irrelevant because I assure you that is not the 
reason it is happening. Nor was it the reason the US went to war in 
1941. Realpolitik rules.

To expect gratitude for acting in your own self-interest is a bit much. 
A soviet Europe, accepting for a moment the naive hypothetical that 
that's what would have happened without the American front moving to 
meet the Russian front, would have been a disaster for America. The 
windmills are neither here nor there.


On Friday, March 7, 2003, at 02:10 PM, bdcolen wrote:

> [so-and-so's comment makes me] wish that we had allowed the Soviets to 
> swallow up little Holland
> along with the entire European continent - assuming that we had 
> bothered
> to rescue you and your windmills from the Nazis.

- --
John Brownlow

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com

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Replies: Reply from Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@pacbell.net> (Re: [Leica] BD's tilting at windmills WAS US Consumer Behavior)