From: "Mike King" Hey Mike, not singling you out, OK? > You're absolutely right and France would be speaking German right now if > we'd stayed out of WW1 or WW2. To any decendants of the countless millions of russians who died fighting and defeated the Nazi Germans who take offense at this statement, feeling their efforts had gone unnoticed, not all the world has ignored their massive contribution to the conclusion of that chapter of a dark time. And to those Germans who may be offended, not all of this current generation are prone to accidentally lumping the present generation in with the Nazi's of that same time. And to the American citizens who feel that the rest of the world is against you and despises America, take heart that most thinking people are very quick to make a distinction between the US government and it's people. And to the Americans who felt disgusted at the US's decision to refrain from fighting in the second world war, know that we understand the decision of the leaders to protect the country from the threat of potential loss of life at the time. And to any Japanese reader, some Australians are aware of our countries hypocracy in isolating Japan from the rest of the world, and the cost of that partitioning that almost bankrupted your country and left it agrieved to the point that it chose war, as all avenues of diplomacy were closed to your leaders at that time. And to the French who's ancestors helped America in becoming a Republic in the model of Frances own republic, I'm sure many Americans DO recognise and are greatful for your past benevoleance. And to the Australians who resent America, feeling that the decision to sacrifice Australia to Japan should things go bad was a betrayal, America has never forgotten our contribution to the many battles we faught with them, especially the Coral Sea campaign, and the US never did actually sacrificed ANY ally. And to any Iraqi who feels betrayed that the US funded and armed Iraq, only to turn on it later attacking it's people, we hope you understand that the _intent_ is not to harm Iraq or it's people but instead to remove a power hungry leader (I hope..) Please people. We all have debts we can never repay and we all have dark moments in our history and we all have a point at which we feel we must draw lines, pulling up isolated moments in time one can justify any emotional argument. they are all facts, all open to interpretation and all justifiable or deniable. My hope for all of you aboard this list, and all the people you know is that you all remain safe and free from harm in the times ahead of us karl (call me naive)
