From: HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.)
Subject: Re: **** ANOTHER COVER-UP - Please read this... ****
Organization: University of Houston Administrative Computing
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 13:18:05 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20

In <BvHp1K.L02@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk writes:

> HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.) writes:
> 
> >In <BvFpv8.I4F@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk writes:

[How the justification for the war has changed from democracy and freedom to
[national self-interest]

> >Only a bloody fool could not see that we intervened due to a concern 
> >for the oil in that region, which we currently still need and will for some
> >time.  That Saddam WAS a brutal dictator engaging in land piracy and threat-
> >ening a friendly Saudi regime was in fact just gravy.  *I* realized this the
> >day the whole thing started.
> 
> Well, maybe you should have been the president then since George 'bloody fool'
> Bush was telling us it was all about 'punishing aggression' and had nothing
> what-so-ever to do with oil or 'national interests' a line being persistently
> touted in alt.desert-shield in particular and later in alt.desert-storm.

  Well, that's at least two of us that wish I were president, but unfortunately
I don't have a few million $$ to blow on a campaign right now (nor did I in 
1988, but I think my chances would be better this year).  As for Bush, well, 
now just *what* did you expect him to say (If you just stick "truth" here I'll
be disappointed)?  Remember he's a politician, having to sell a political cause.
Those more noble justifications are perfectly valid ones, I've little doubt
they played their part in his decisions (as in mine).  If folks didn't look
at the oil issue it was because they chose not to.  Zillions of talking heads
discussed the need for the oil.  Oil was constantly being mentioned.

> Now 2 years later after the dust has settled along comes Jimmy Millar and
> announces to the net: 
> "*I* realized this the day the whole thing started."

  Is it so shocking to you an American might see the more cynical motives of his
government but support a particular action anyway, because it's justified in
its own right?  Come now, David this bit of childishness is beneath you.  Did
you not see this very early on?  Your tone leads me to believe you did.  Many
protesters against the war also saw it very early on.  Why shouldn't I have 
also?

> and that everyone else was: 
> "a bloody fool".

  Very well, "IMO", if you like.  Are you not calling them fools now, by 
muttering about the about-faces shown by some of the pro-war folks?  And if
you agree with me, why should you dislike my calling of these people fools?
They were.

> >  Governmental motives in this were quite in line with national self-
> >interest. Getting to do something noble (rescuing a weaker nation from an 
> >agressor) was a nice bonus.
> 
> So it *really* was all about American imperialism then was it?

  Depends on what it is you mean by "imperialism".  If you take it to mean act-
ing to protect something seen as important to the US, then okay fine, it's
imperialism by your definition.  If you mean extending American hegemony, I 
think you're mistaken.

> >  And if you're wondering where I was during the first round, I didn't have 
> >an account back then.
> 
> ..and your views would have made *mighty* interesting reading if you had an
> account then. I just wonder if you'd have broke ranks or stuck with the
> masses.
> Dave

  My views are always interesting :-).  As for the latter, *I* know what I 
would have done, since I "broke ranks" from the very beginning, but unfortun-
ately I have no way to prove that to you...


semper fi,

Jammer Jim Miller 
Texas A&M University '89 and '91
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