Re: america

blah b b blah (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 17:53:31 -0500 (EST) 

ok, then, hopefully a better reply to Sean:

On Tue, 30 Mar 1999 17:25:20 -0800 "Sean Draine (Exchange)"
<seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com> writes:
>
>The parallel that I see between Vietnam and Kosovo is that we entered 
>both
>conflicts with the assumption that our advanced technology would allow 
>us to
>easily overwhelm the opponent while spilling a minimum of American 
>blood.
>Bad assumption in the case of Vietnam. Possibly a bad assumption in 
>the case
>of Kosovo - that remains to be seen. Keep in mind, the Serbs, like the 
>North
>Vietnamese, are strongly united in their cause. 
>

Your statements RE: your original post on this subject seem pretty
accurate, I've just reread it.  I agree it's somewhat insane to think
technology will prevent the mass spilling of American blood (and others)
should the conflict grow to the point where the deployment of NATO troops
becomes necessary.  A man I know who fought in WW2 said, because of the
difficulty of the terrain, Hilter lost 44 divisions in that area.  I
doubt we'd do better.

The parallel you did draw between the Serbs and the North Vietnamese is a
bit misleading, however.  What, they want to win badly?  They really,
really want to kill all the Albanians they can?  of course.  The more
revelvant parallel to draw would be between the South Vietnamese and the
Albanians.  And I don't think you can compare the two.  I'd say the
people being defended there are a bit more motivated to win this than the
South Vietnamese...  

>Jim, if you'll reread my post, you'll note that I've not taken a 
>position on
>the moral justification of Kosovo. Nevertheless, you've somehow
>misattributed an opinion to me.

Nah, given the tone of your post within the context of this discussion it
wasn't that far a stretch.  But I'm willing to admit that you may have
simply been posting your opinion without regard to anything else that had
been said to date, so in that case I admit I was wrong there.

 If you're going to drag me into that 
>debate,

You spoke up on the issue while others were debating it, if you find
yourself in the middle you have no one but yourself to blame.

>you should know that I didn't find Scottie's analogies with the 
>American
>Civil War or WWII very convincing, nor was I convinced by your 
>equation of
>Serbs with Nazis.

I didn't completely equate the Serbs with the Nazis, but genocide is
genocide is genocide.  The difference between the Serbs and the Nazis is
that the Serbs don't appear to have any ambitions outside their present
or recently previous borders, while the Nazis had immediate ambitions
that encompassed all of Europe -- and genocide was just one little item
on the agenda.

 For my view, take the average of yours and Scottie's
>opionion and divide by the square-root of three.
>
>-Sean
>

Your view so far as that goes is pretty meaningless, to attribute any
value to your opinon hasn't been justified by your post; the only "facts"
you presented were about your own post, not about the situation at hand. 
I agree with the facts surrounding your previous post, and to be honest I
agree with the opinion presented RE: American Technological Supremacy and
American opinion regarding that.  But I'm still waiting for some
substance behind your assessment of the situation.

Jim

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