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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame
Subject: Re: Grenada & Korea
Message-ID: <331@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Oct-83 18:13:00 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.331
Posted: Mon Oct 31 18:13:00 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Nov-83 20:24:55 EST
References: <505@ariel.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 44

Isn't it amazing how some people will only believe what they want to believe.
Why, you'd think that no one could balance the evidence and make a viable
decision.

Who am I talking about?  I'm talking about those loud-mouthed liberals who
seem to think that Russians have territorial rights, but not Americans;
who think Russians have the right to waltz into foreign countries but
not Americans.

AND those loud-mouthed conservatives who shout about how Americans should
waltz into foreign countries but Russians shouldn't because they're
imperialistic; how Americans are always on the side of right but Russians
aren't because they're imperialistic.  And evil.  And the Antichrist.  And
Anticapitalist (some people equate the three).

A point to ponder:  with all this "let's invade to protect ourselves in case"
mentality going around, it would seem that the Cubans were abolsutely
justified in having stockpiles of ammunition and weapons on Grenada.  After
all, we did invade the island, didn't we?  Could it be that that was the
purpose for having the weapons there?  Wouldn't you then call their presence
justified?  On the other hand, with a radical new government in power, were
the American citizens there in danger of a rerun of Teheran?  Or was that
just the right excuse?

Face it.  Our paranoid intelligence network is probably equally as bad as their
(USSR's) paranoid intelligence network.  When they invade Afghanistan or
shoot down an airliner with espionage equipment on board, are they acting any
differently than the US does when we invade Grenada or overthrow a dangerous
government in Chile.  A plane with espionage equipment?  A dangerous
regime?  According to whom?

With this sort of mentality running rampant, it's within the realm of
probability that this atmosphere of fear and paranoia (not present at the
elective level until Reagan came along, but probably omnipresent in the
"intelligence" community--even Nixon toned down his rhetoric while in office)
will result in a real live war by...what year will it be next year? [NOTE: THIS
CLEVER (?) POINT ABOUT THE COMING YEAR CAN BE MADE BY ALMOST ANYONE TO PROMOTE
THEIR CASE ON ANY ISSUE.  I'VE SEEN COMMENTS ON THE AT&T DIVESTITURE SAYING
"GUESS WHEN IT GOES INTO EFFECT---1984!! (insert Twilight Zone music here)" ]

Anyway, the fact that both liberal and conservative alike fail to see through
their self-obscuring clouds of opinion and emotion does not shed a positive
light on the experiment we call the democratic process.