Lucy replied to my post quoting Thompson: "Dr. Thompson is stunningly
naive and has extracted from his one-sided analysis any evidence of an
understanding of sociopathology."
I like that phrase "stunningly naive." I might even endorse it.
Lucy: "The United States, like every other country on earth, has made and
continues to make its mistakes."
Yeah. I think Thompson's point, made clumsily, is that some of these
"mistakes" have been doosies (a mid 1950 term). Like Project Bluebird, in
the 1950s, which exposed 100s of subjects to drug and radiation
"experiments." Or the 1954 Guatemala coup, in which our CIA was involved
in assassinations. Or the Spanish-American war. Perhaps even WWII against
japan (not against Hitler) in which both nations seem to have had some
culpability in starting (see Toland's 198x history of Pearl Harbor).
Perhaps the 1960s Operation Pluto, which failed to overthrow Castro. Or
Operation Chaos, which was a domestic spy operation in the late 1960s. In
the 1970s the CIA campaign to oust Allende (in Chile). Or the CIA's
military support on UNITA in the Angolan civil war. In the 1980s, the CIA
training of the contra rebels, and the sale of arms (illegally) to Iran.
The support of Manual Noriega, Pinochet, and, of course, for over 14
years, the employment of a guy named Osama bin laden.
Lucy: "It is also the most generous nation on earth sending billions of
dollars and thousands of volunteers and missionaries to every nook and
cranny to help everyone with food shortages, earthquake relief, you name
it. There is not one nation on this earth that comes close to the
generous spirit of our government and its people. "
I completely agree. But my question here is simply this: In spite of all
our good deeds, why are we hated? While "Osama bin Laden and his ilk do
not in any way represent normal forms of behavioral resistance to those
policies of ours that are disliked," the fact remains that there are a
lot of people who would not take violent action against us who still hate
us. Why is that? Bush & company continue to say it is because they "hate
our freedom, etc." That may be a small part of the reasons; I think the
main reasons have to do with the fact that we are perceived, in some
cases with justification, as "bullies" on the international scene.
Lucy: "They are sociopaths.... To in any way validate their actions is,
in my opinion, shameful. Dr. Thomson and his ilk, in effect, work as
enablers for these terrorists... .
Finding the real reasons why we are hated by some groups is not enabling.
I cannot agree with your last sentence, as much as I agree that
Thompson's "analysis" is very naive.
Cheers.
John Burgeson (Burgy)
http://www.burgy.50megs.com
(science/theology, quantum mechanics, baseball, ethics,
humor, cars, God's intervention into natural causation, etc.)
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