[Am-info] OT

[Gene Gaines]

Geoffrey,

I respect what you say, but respectfully suggest you might
want to assemble better factual evidence to support your
position.

I see you have been listening to certain political media.

Actually, John Kerry has accomplished a great deal on the
intelligence committee. As I recall, it was Kerry's stubborn,
dogged hard work that caused the unraveling of the Contra, the
illegal drug trafficing by U.S. intelligence agencies, and the
John Dean fiasco. I could go on. Congressional members do not go
to every committee meeting. There is no need to. They attend
meetings where they have something to contribute or questions to
raise. The best Congressmen pick issues of important to them or
their constituents, assemble a good staff, and work on those
issues. A respected Congressman works on a cooperative basis
with other members, and their staffs brief each other on what
goes on in committees.

What is wrong with Viet Nam? Nice country, lovely people. They
do love their freedom, and have shown they are willing to fight
for it. Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia. Of course, Agent Orange and
other defoliant chemicals blights large areas of the landscape
and has caused much sickness. Our war in Viet Nam was a
horrible, horrible waste. Our incursion into the country cost
huge numbers of lives, the people we attacked, the people we
thought we were defending then abandoned, and our own soldiers.

Geoffrey, fact is, most of the entire world thinks you were on
the wrong side in our little Vietnamese conflict.

But then, I believe (horrors) that attempting to be the one
international superpower that bullies the rest of the world is
both immoral and inevitably will destroy those who hold such a
position.

This is about as basic a fact of life as the lessons most people
learn as children. A good analogy here is the sandbox and "plays
well with others." A more formal statement, "life is not a zero-
sum game".

What I see as the current position of our country is, that it is
OK to cooperate with other countries unless such cooperation
takes too long, is inconvenient, or might compromise our
interests, at which time it is best we flex our muscle and force
what we want.  Remember, George Bush went to Yale; this column
several years ago in the Yale Daily News states this position
well.  http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23887
But, over time, bullies do not do well, and I have never
felt the need to be a bully.

Speaking of  countries.

A country I particularly love is Malaysia, and I have thought of
retiring to Kuala Lumpur. Of course, it is an OPEC country with
a high Muslim population. I like it there, have very much
enjoyed spending time at the National Mosque, participating in
ceremonies at their Hindu shrines, Buddhist temples. Perhaps the
best respect and tolerance for other religions and races I have
ever seen. Substantial Daoist, Christian, Sikh populations also.
Salamat Datang.

Also, I am so very very disappointed in how little we know, how
little we have learned, and how little we care about the
extraordinary civilization and culture that flourished in Persia
(call it Iraq) and particularly Bagdad before North America or
Europe became what today we would call civilized or literate.
Remember the Dark Ages?  It was the rise of the Mongol Empire
that opened trade routes to Europe, bringing literacy and
science from middle eastern centers of learning, particularly
in Bagdad, plus science and mettalurgy from China.  Today we use
Arabic numbers, not Roman numbers, not English numbers.  But we
went after oil, created Saddam Hussein, set him up in power,
then later destroyed his dictatorship.  Seems to me our
government and military at no time bothered to learn about or
respect the Middle Eastern people, their heritage, their
history.  In the long term, this will prove to be a fatal
mistake.

I am seriously thinking of going to my visiting my local mosque
to ask to present a personal apology for our ignorant
destruction of the Iraqi history, our violation of the Geneva
Conventions, and our torture of people in Abu Grab prison, in
Guantanamo, and in other countries.  The latter amount to war
crimes, and I want to make very sure that I am on record as
condemning such actions.

Geoffrey. Oh. I digress. If you are ever in Washington DC, I
would like to take you to John Kerry's office, or perhaps to
meet several of his Republican senate associates and see the
high regard this man is held in.

If you do not like the man and do not like his actions, that is
your right and I respect that.  But it would be good for you to
make that judgement yourself, not through listening to others.

Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com

This is my third political statement, and I will send no more to
this list until after the election.

On Wednesday, October 27, 2004, 7:21:11 AM, Geoffrey wrote:

> Gene Gaines wrote:
>> Test.
>> 
>> Vote for John Kerry.  Kerry is good.

> Actually he's a liar and a traitor.  I can't imagine anyone voting for him.

> Check his voting record.  Check his attendance, or rather lack there of.
>   He missed over 70% of the intelligence committee meetings.  This is
> public record, not rhetoric!

> I don't care how much you hate Bush, or republicans.  I can't understand
> anyone voting for someone who says one thing one time and the exact
> opposite another and that's exactly what Kerry does.  Kerry is nothing
> but a professional politician.

> You do know that his photo hangs in a prominent location in a communist
> museum in Viet Nam???

> I don't vote party, I vote integrity.



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