>John, I am taking the liberty of focusing on this one, misguided
>issue to make a point. I hope you don't take offense.
>Cassius Clay (M.Ali) was -never- a Muslim until he was served
>with his draft papers. Did you know that?
Yes I did know that. I have also heard that he held the beliefs but
didn't talk about it publically until he was forced to. Bollocks?
Convenient timing? Perhaps. The point is that "Ali" is simply an
example - the concept is of people standing up for something they
personally belief in - not standing up and fighting for something
their government deems politically correct to be "believing in" at
that time. Each can be equally laudable in it's own right.
I hardly think the U.S. was in any danger over Vietnam. I would fight
to protect the U.K. against an invasion or whatever if necessary, but
if my government decided it wanted to protect Peru against an invasion
by Uruguay then it would take a LOT of persuasion to get me there. In
any case this responsibility comes not only in the form of fighting
but in the fact of paying thousands of pounds in tax every year, not
defrauding the country out of money, observing laws etc etc.
If everyone had taken that approach then presumably the Germans
wouldn't have gone to war and the first place. Nor would we have had
to bankrupt our country paying our "allies" for the assistance they so
obligingly sold to us.
"None of them"? So you are telling me that _every_ soldier who went to
Vietnam behaved impeccably, none of the people in Vietnam were treated
badly, no looting, no drug smuggling, no raping of local woman
-NOTHING like that AT ALL?
Every war in history has had it's share of atrocities and I cannot
believe you could assert otherwise. You can't say that no soldier
behaved badly just as you can't say that every soldier behaved badly.
They are just people like anyone else, with a normal distribution of
personalities - the pressure and situation would, if anything, serve
to accentuate that.
Cheers!
John
