I don't have any letters attached to my name, but I have always believed that to find the answer to an enigma one must follow the money.

We have no national interest in the Serbian situation. If we were so concerned with preserving human life, we would have gone into Ruwanda a year ago. 100s of thousands of people were slaughtered over tribal differences.

Now we get to Serbia. If we lose face on that issue, NATO may fall apart. What does NATO mean to your pocket book? Allow me to share with you my thoughts: We have just pushed, enticed and enveigled Poland, Chekoslovakia and Hungary into joining NATO.

They must now arm their military with up to date military equipment. Planes, Tanks, Missles, uniforms, small arms ane on and on. They cannot afford the expense so we, The American government will lend them the money. Millions and millions of dollars. Now they can buy the stuff from the US, the UK and France.

Since these countries are so broke, The US will guarantee the loan. These countries will not be able to pay the loan, soooooooo you and I will pay it off for them. Everyone makes money, even you and I. It will just cost a few young American lives We dare not allow this wonderful money making machine to fail.

All of this in light of y2k makes me a little ashamed of being and American. I hope I am wrong.

Bill in South Carolina

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), March 22, 1999

Answers

Bill,

Don't you know that you can't have a big party unless enough people have party hats? You party pooper you.

--Greybear, who thinks you are not wrong.

-Gpt Paryt Favors?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 22, 1999.

I'm still proud to be an American, because I don't consider the so-called the apparatus in Washington to be a government de jeure - it's actually a de facto government. I'm neither a party to nor responsible for their crimes against humanity. They represent me and my interests as much as the man in the moon does.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 22, 1999.

Well I am no longer proud to be an American, I am ashamed of what my country has become and I am ashamed of my countrymen who have allowed it to happen.

If someone had described to me, as a child, what the America I would live in as an adult had become, I not only would have not believed them, I would have considered them insane. This is NOT anything like the America I expected to live in when I grew up.

I started out much the same as many of you, I expect, standing in a classroom each morning with my hand over my heart, pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes. I was a naive little kid--I though everyone else meant it too. . .

I first started paying serious attention when I joined the Marines. I was surprised that there were so many blacks and Mexicans in the Corps. Where I had grown up, the only Mexicans were The Cisco Kid and Pancho and the blacks lived in another part of town. I had never known any of these guys or anyone like them before.

The Marine Corps that I had joined was composed of men of only one color however and that color was green. I know that there have been instances of racism here and there, but on balance, the Corps is the closest thing I have ever known to a color blind society.

As I came to know these men, I discovered that my education was just beginning. With the foolishness of youth I had supposed that I was "educated"! I found out about the "other" America. I found out about the struggle to exercise those "unalienable Rights" that all men were supposed to have.

And I found out about war. It is no exaggeration to say that war is the most evil thing that men do. The sound of the first shot one hears that has been fired in anger obliterates all illusions of glory, honor, patriotism and all such other forms of emotional nonsense. As the experience continues (if you survive long enough) your body runs out of the chemicals it needs to produce the sensations of fear. Your brain, however, understands what is happening and experiences continual terror and horror. It is quite a circumstance to be scared shitless and inhabit a body that is not afraid. The orders that you see issued and (sometimes) followed convince you that nothing exists but madness. For some, it is the end. For others, the madness eventually stops and the combat ends. They are the "lucky" ones; the ones who go home. I also learned that "luck" comes in two flavors; good and bad.

Arrival home was for many a revelation that the madness had simply changed form. We were spat upon by our countrymen for our efforts. We were castigated and characterized as "baby killers". In general, it was a very bad time for America and it was almost worse for the returning veterans than the horror they had endured on America's behalf.

Since then, it has been all downhill. Some years later, I attended a county commissioner's court in Texas where I had purchased some land. The local newspaper had run a piece to the effect that the county was doubling the tax rate and if anyone had any questions or comments, the commissioner's court was on Tuesday. I attended. When the time came on the agenda for questions/comments from the public, I stood up, identified myself as a new landowner in the county and quite politely asked for an explanation of the reasons why such a substantial tax increase was needed. I was wearing my flight jacket, and my gold wings were prominent. I was still on active duty and my name tag said that I was a US Marine. The County Judge (not a real judge, but the CEO of the county government) looked me straight in the eye and said, "Sit down and shut up! You are out of order!" The two large deputy sheriffs present moved closer and made my options clear. You may well imagine my more obvious emotions at the moment, but the most enduring was grief. That scene, more than any other, convinced me that the America that I had known and had hoped to live in until my death was gone. Nothing that I have experienced since has changed my mind.

Nearly two millennia ago a madman fiddled while Rome burned. Today a madman engages in oral sex while our society oozes down the drain. What will they say about us after we're gone?

Bill has got it just exactly right.

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), March 23, 1999.

the serbian crisis in the early 1900's led to WW1. i'd rather see them nipped in the bud before they have a chance to do it all over again.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 23, 1999.