Text 14895, 53 rader
Skriven 2008-05-07 18:55:32 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 14883 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
Ärende: Unrest in France
========================
Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Tuesday May 06 2008 at 17:50:

RB>>>> And such things also don't happen "all the time". There was a major
RB>>>> unrest just before Sarkozy became president, when he was the
RB>>>> interior minister, and a minor unrest just afterwards, sparked when
RB>>>> two North African kids on a stolen motorbike rammed a police car
RB>>>> and were killed - the police were blamed for the accident and that
RB>>>> sparked a riot.

RW>>> You guys really aren't getting this news? Typical.

RB>> Mind telling me how you reach this conclusion just after I described
RB>> the situation to you?

RW> You're one in 5, perhaps 6 outspoken people from Z2 that hang out
RW> here. There are at least 3 of you who are out and out liars. Only one
RW> of you disagrees with the others when they tell their lies about
RW> things in Europe and almost always disagrees with the lies told by at
RW> least two of the others. He may not be the sharpest knife in the
RW> drawer and certainly not the easiest to get along with, but I think
RW> deep down, he's at least honest.

Roy, what do you want me to do? I don't damn the States out of hand, although
the present situation frightens me. I got into hot water defending the Iraq
invasion in the German echos, because I was honestly convinced that there
_were_ WMDs if the intelligence people said there were, and thought Iraq was a
big place to hide such things. It never even occurred to me that the
information was being manipulated. I trusted both the President and his
advisors, and firmly believed in the separation of powers in the Constitution.

In the meantime, it turns out that the intelligence was wrong, the President
was a gung-ho fanatic, and the constitutional separation of powers is a myth.
Just look at Bush's blatent rejection of the idea that he cannot order domestic
wiretaps without judicual approval - and Congress' kowtow to that view.

To be frank, I'm frightened. I'm frightened at the developments in the States
and even more frightened that our own politicians embrace every
democracy-limiting, privacy-intrusive act of Mr. Bush so enthusiastically.
Democracy, quo vadis?

In times past, the States was a refuge in a troubled world. I regret deeply
that is no longer the case, and can only hope that a new administration -
probably several will be necessary - will manage to rebuild the loss of
democracy and confidence in the States.

Roy, I was born in the States and grew up there. What happens there concerns me
greatly. I want to see a United States that is free, democratic and again
respected in the world. The present situation makes me desperately unhappy.

Cheers, Bob

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