From: tjdavis@kurango.cit.gu.edu.au (Tim Davis)
Subject: Re: How many US navy men does it take to change a light bulb ?
Organization: Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 06:18:51 GMT

johnd@physiol.su.OZ.AU (John Dodson) writes:

>A bad choice of a word perhaps, ask a few Americans, not only do many of
>them consider themselves a "race" but also a superior one !

I think the operative word here is 'few'.  Remember that there are over
250 million Americans and the views expressed by a 'few' do not really
reflect the sentiments of the masses.  While most (and I use the term
most softly) Americans are rather proud of being an American (most of
the time) and their heritage (significantly multi-cultural), I would
find it difficult to generalize this to a level that implies that they
feel superior in the sense that you are suggesting.  Do you also take
the same position about Australians that are proud of being Australian
and proud about the accomplishments of a 200 year old country (and there
are many).

>My comment above was made just after a reference to a US warship blowing
>away a Turkish destroyers bridge & killing a number of people with at least
>2 live missiles that were not supposed to be used during an excercise.

While I may be mistaken (and I don't think I am), I believe that the
US has accepted full responsibility for what took place.  Though this
does not change what took place, it is a step in the direction of doing
the 'right' thing and hopefully action will be taken that will prevent
the reoccurance of such a tragedy.

>If the US Military do this kind of thing so regularly (list of other unprovoked
>- Red Button pushes deleted) perhaps they need to get out of an arms "race" in
>which there are now few other competitors, certainly they need to have tighter
>controls on the more dangerous "toys" these kiddies play with. Perhaps they
>should make the Red Buttons a bit smaller for them.

Without question, any occurance of a mistake such as this is unacceptable.
However, you used the phrase 'so regularly' and I would like to understand
the context of this.  Let me give an example of what I am trying to get
at:

	There was a military aircraft accident in the US several years
	ago in which a number of military personnel were killed.  It
	took place during a training exercise under simulated combat
	conditions.  Following that, there was a strong position taken
	by members of the community and in political circles for the
	elimination of the exercise conditions leading up to the accident.
	A study was subsequently conducted which revealed the following
	(I will not quote numbers as I do not recall the exact figures):

	1.  it was significantly safer to fly in military aircraft under
	    any condition other than real combat than it was to fly in
	    commercial aircraft as a passenger;

	2.  it was even more significantly safer to fly in a commercial
	    aircraft as a passenger than to drive or ride as a passenger
	    in a car.

	So my question is, what do we eliminate first.

I would just like to finish with the thought that this world is 'our
world', not the Americans or the Japanese or the Europeans or the
whoevers.  I can only hope that someday we can 'all' recognize the
possiblity of world peace and no longer have to worry about who is
or is held to be the the leading world power.  Country bashing is just
another form of social injustice.

I'll get off my soap-box now.

-- 

=============================================================
Timothy J Davis                 Email:  tjdavis@cit.gu.edu.au
Lecturer
Newsgroups: aus.jokes.d