Wired: Echelon Furor Ends in a Whimper

[Ken Brown]

Owen Lewis wrote:

> Whatever
> dear old Uncle Sam may or may not have got up to in this century,

I assume you mean the previous century, they haven't had time in t he
21st yet.

> he has
> not, in the quest of 'political control':
> 
>         -       Effectively eliminated one or more races from an entire continent.

That's because they had all but finished the job in the 19th century. By
the 1890s the starving remnants of the native Americans were reduced to
a level where they could be kept going as a tourist attraction
 
>         -       Exterminated, by shooting, burning, starvation, disease and slave labour
> untold millions (20M+) of his own people.

I'll give you that one. 

>         -       Eliminated political dissent within his own borders or anyone else's.

I don't think anyone has ever *eliminated* political dissent anywhere. A
number of people have tried, including the US establishment.

>         -       Preached race or religious hatred as state policy at home and abroad.

Government-sponsored race hatred and segregation was a feature of life
over much of the USA as recently as the 1950s and 1960s as you know. 
Not on the level of South Africa or the Nazis, but it was there, and it
was public policy.

>         -       Occupied the land of others at the point of a bayonet, claiming some
> ancient, God given right apparent to none but himself.

Come off it! Yes they bloody well did and you know it. Nicaragua is the
obvious case, but there are others. 

I'm not saying they were any worse than most other countries but to
claim that they were better is egregious.

> 
> One could go on but you get the point I think. Balance in all things, mon
> vieux. Uncle Sam surely is not perfect and - like the rest of us - he makes
> mistakes from time to time. However, he is not the vicious psychotic thug
> that some (stand up K & P) would like to depict him as.

K & P?  The peanut brand?????


Ken