Mike, pmfji but iro:

>Why do they hate us?

Read some of the posts in this thread alone but put yourself in the shoes of those we are talking about. Empathy.

For instance, the sentence: "the Chinese are much harder workers than the Russians (who are also crooked)". What does this say? Two things: (1) Russians are lazy and (2) they are also crooked. hmmm. I wonder how I would feel if that were said about the people of my country...

Do we really believe that Arabs love their children and families less than we do? That they actually want to blow themselves up? That they enjoy war, the killing, the maiming? Are all the people of a country the same as the few visible madmen who make the 8 o'clock news?

As long as each side take a position of absolute righteousness without consideration of "why" things happen then both sides are equally fanatic and both will lose.

Is the war in Iraq won? Is the Israel/Palestine conflict won? They will never be won, by either side, becuase as long as there is one fanatic who cannot or will not consider the other sides point of view then the war goes on, and on...



>Thomas:
>
>Wow! I had no idea about this. Honestly I am flabbergasted. Thank you for putting this together for me.
>
>Since you are an expert, what do you think of the missle shield that they are taking about setting up in Canada. Do you think it will ever work?
>
>I can follow your idea about using planes or missles to shoot down bombers, but how would you shoot down a missle?
>
>Can I also ask you a non-military question that we should put into the equation. Why would the Russians launch an attack against North America? Why do they hate us? You know Canadians are very good at negotiating. If we found out why they hate us, I'll bet we could do something that would put us in a better light. Like maybe they need help with their oil drilling. Maybe they would like to get in on some of the deals that China is doing with automobile production etc. I should tell you that the Chinese are much harder workers than the Russians (who are also crooked) but MacDonalds was able to find a way over there. Like if Paul Celucci asked us to partner in working an economic deal with the Russians rather then building a defence against them, Canadians would be lining up to help you.
>
>One thing that will not help is bombing the crap out of them so they can have "freedom". I am sorry about putting in this line (please ignore it) but I just couldn't stop myself. <vbg>
>
>Mike Smith