Every so often, there's an email joke that does the rounds. Somebody forwards it, they send it to all their friends, who send it to all their friends, until you get the email with a thousand peoples' email addresses in the headers, and a 'check this out' title. Today we got one of the most disgusting emails yet, and the first in a while to get forwarded to me. I can only assume it came from the US Gov't "public information" office, as it seems quite accurately timed to match the announcement that we [UK and US] are about to invade a country regardless of public or world opinion. Today, we received about 4 pages of the most disgusting racism I have ever read. Belittling the French nation is something normally regarded as somewhat amusing, if rather puerile as jokes go. But to see page after page of insults, personal attacks, and half-truths get forwarded around the entire technical-community of both countries is going far too far. The French have no involvement with Mr Bush's personal crusade, and no reason to endorse it. They own much of the oil infrastructure within Iraq (Total-Fina-Elf), and are reasonably happy with the country's stability, and with Iraq's first war-free decade. Did you really think they would stand up in the UN and say 'go ahead, kill our engineers and bomb our oil-rigs'? What would be your response if someone asked the UN to support a bombing of Texas? What is it about Europe's stance on Iraq that has the American public so riled? Are they really so stubborn that they can't see the one glorious american truth? Are they really cowards and slaves like the email suggested? Not really. They just can't figure out what the hell we're doing. They see the largest army in the world planning to invade a country just because their president doesn't like the man in charge. As someone in my office said, if Saddam Hussein and George Bush were in the others' shoes, they'd still be acting exactly the same. Come to Britain, and you'll be pressed to find anyone who thinks that we 'need' to invade Iraq. Ask people here, and they're genuinely concerned about the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians that are going to get killed. Do people feel nothing for those working in the Iraqi radar station when it was bombed? How can we talk about saving the world from 'terror' yet watch as our own bombs rain down on towns and cities of people who've done nothing against us? And how can we talk about being the world's 'police' when the world goes to the UN and disavows us? When we need to angrily insult the French for not endorsing our war? When we need to threaten small countries with cutting off aid supplies to their starving population if they don't endorse our war? When the next Bali nightclub gets bombed, the French know it's not going to be their children that are killed. Can we really justify labelling our own next generation as careless murderers in the eyes of the world?
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I dont believe in war simply because it will lead to deaths on both sides. i do however feel sadamm needs to be taken down. we have the right to go to hyde park to protest in iraq if you were to protest against the government you will get shot. He is another Hitler and of course he has weapons of mass destruction as the western world damn well sold the components to them. one of the main causes of the second world war was appeasement. if we let sadamm get away with it he or his sons will turn round in 10 years and with their weapons of mass destruction would wage war on us.
- C. Loughney
