Newsweek: "Salvador Option" --US Mulls Getting Back in the Death Squad Biz.

I would almost agree with opposing Russia and China at least where our trade dollars are concerned. There was a time when it was much more feasible than it is now. The EU can give our consumer dollars a run for their money.

But there are still areas in between. We are huge consumers, and we should tie our dollars directly to human rights policies in other nations including China and Russia.

 

We could just send in Coca-Cola to take care of everything for us.

 

Not to be glib, but the Egyptians and the peoples who used to be Yugoslavians make us look like dilettantes when it comes to torture. Definately not an excuse for our acts, but more a sense of perspective.

IMHO, the fundamental moral functions tend to have been subverted in the people who would be in a position to torture. The only thing which prevents torture is the threat of public outrage which things like FOIA bring. As FOIA is suberted, the US edges more towards aberant behavior, but we still are being lapped by quite a few others.

In general, I think that the mindeset which allows you to "torture the enemy" is one of the fundimental human foibles like greed and selfishness that can't be eliminated, only held in check. Keep in mind that the empatheic skills required to deduce other people's motivations were fundimentaly lacking (at least among speakers of English) until the latter part of the eighteenth century. Philosophies which advocate otherwise, from my experience, suffer from the conceit that man is not of the animals and subject to animal urges and animal weaknesses of character.

 

My whole point is that the world is NOT black and white. And the FMLN was certainly led by marxists who invisioned a communist revolution. Whether or not that was good is not as relevant as the fact that you deny it now to make them seem more legitimate.

Which has nothing to do with the US. This happen way before Reagan increased aid to El Salvador, which was the whole point of the article you posted. And representing the FMLN as peaceful is ludicrous. I guess in the .org world they were real nice people.

Yes, I am fanatically anti-communist. Funny how that's somehow become an insult in and of itself in glynch's world. Unlike glynch, my family is FROM a communist regime, and fought AGAINST communists because they had a real understanding of what it means to live under that kind of regime.

 

If that is your standard, then you should advocate the overthrow of the US government. Is that what you advocate? You see this is the crux of my whole argument with glynch and his ilk. The world is NOT black and white. Sometimes you have a decision between shades of gray, neither choice being pure.

 

Don't remember saying I was 'into' torture, although I don't think I've taken a decisive position one way or the other. As for being fanatically anti-communist, that means I don't believe in the ideology, think its worse than counterproductive, and that its failed in every instance its been followed (China, Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua etc). Of course I know that you were rooting for the marxist revolution, and were greatly disappointed at the so-called 'End of History' where capitalism emerged as the dominant ideology and communism crumbled. But that's good for you since the communist regimes all have a draft you don't get to opt out of.

Did you miss 9/11? Bali? Madrid? Oh, right - those weren't Muslims, they were Mossad and CIA agents. I think you're the one who's obsessed, glynch. Which one of us posts about Iraq in Social Security threads, lol?

 

No, I said I understood why Reagan did what he did, but that I would have approached the problem differently. The FMLN was undeniably marxist, and as such definitely worth opposing, especially during the Cold War. But it doesn't matter what someone says because you'll just repeat the same ol crap anyway.

I never connected 9/11 and Iraq so not sure what you're saying here. You say I'm perceiving a threat that doesn't exist - but 9/11, among many terrorist strikes by Muslims, are FACT not conjecture.

I didn't see this until after the last post. So first you accuse me of irrationally and without factual basis claiming there was a threat from Muslims, and then you say its a problem. Make up your mind, man. Again I NEVER connected 9/11 with Iraq, so you're just making stuff up now.

GLYNCH! Get ahold of yourself! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've repeated this to you, including before the intervention, that I NEVER CLAIMED Iraq was an imminent threat. Rather it was an INEVITABLE threat and a worthwhile expedition not only for our own interests but for the Iraqi people as well.

 

Then shut up already.

Glynch, there WAS this thing called the Cold War. I know, I know, it was really just evil yankeedog capitalist bosses crushing worldwide revolution, and there was not really a threat of global thermonuclear war...

My 'little distinctions.' How nice. Basically you don't have anything to say so you're starting to ramble again.