The Logic Off Topic list

I do appreciate that Spectro and Hendrik are frank about thier opinions 
and they have every right to have them. There is no reason why they have 
to like or agree with the US. What is depressing is that their opiniions 
overlook so many facts, are based on half truths, or and distorted facts 
(e.g that the US became strong on the basis of slavery and this was the 
reason we left the racism conference recently). And the fact that so many 
non-Americans around the world might feel this way is depressing. How can 
you educate billions who are misinformed? 

What about all these good things we have done? What about all the money 
and aid we have spent? What about all the lives we have lost? What about 
all the things we did for other countries and for the world as a whole? 

Also numbers are a problem for many people. People say "oh 70,000 people 
died in an instant in  Hiroshima, how terrible!" - but divide 15,000,000 
Chinese by 70,000 and you get about 214 Chinese killed for every person 
at Hiroshima (many of whom were Korean slave laborers by the way). And 
then ask yourself, if you had to die, would you rather go out in an 
instant in an atomic blast, or would you like to be tied naked to a chair 
with your legs tied  wide open, then have 30 Japanese soldiers fuck you, 
then stab you to death with a knife and bleed to death in terrible pain 
and terrible shame? This happened to tens of thousands of Chinese women. 
Or would you like your head chopped off by a Japanese officer grinning 
and having fun? Or would you like to be tied with a group of 200 of your 
compatriots and doused with gasoline and set ablaze? Well, I'm sorry, but 
I would prefer the atomic bombing. 

Speaking of choices of this type, the thing that haunts me about the WTC 
bombing is seeing those people jump. A few minutes before they were going 
about their business in their place of work, the next minute they have to 
decide shall I be burned alive or jump from 1000 feet in the air. And 
they jump, and just like that their entire life is over. No time to say 
goodbye to their husbands or wives, or kids. No time to write a will. 
Take a chair, smash a window. Feel the cold wind blowing. Look down as if 
looking down from an airplane at the tiny cars below, and then jump, 
feeling the rush of wind in your hair as your body tumbles down, seeing 
the street getting closer and closer, as time stands still,  seeing the 
blur of the windows you're passing on the way down, and suddently BAM. 
You're gone and every thing you planned for, or saved for, or wanted to 
do, or wanted to write or compose is gone.


>Firstly, please understand I was positing numerous examples in response
>to a paragraph of  Dennis' that attempted to  suggest reasons why the US is
>viewed  resentfully and how this could lead to its perception in some 
>quarters
>as being the 'Great Satan'.