kat. Why is it racist to say that I don't care if they hate us now since they have always hated us? I have no predjudice against people of Arabic descent, I was simply stating fact.
If you mean that I should care if they hate us because I would then try to do something about it because it's all our fault, sorry, but that dog won't hunt.
The Arabic antipathy toward the West pre-dates thre founding of this country. It extends all the way back to the Crusades and to the decline of the Islamic culture as a force to be reckoned with in the West. If you want a date, try 1492, the year of the Reconquista when the Moors were expelled from Spain.
The present day hatred stems partially from our support of the State of Israel but mostly from the fact that we are the biggest and baddest right now and so make the best target. It isn't just us that they hate, it's the whole of Western Civilization.
As I stated before, just because I tell the truth doesn't make me a racist. It simply makes me realistic.
They aren't going to love us no matter what we do but they will now respect the fact that we will do what we say. After Somalia, everyone figured that the US didn't have the guts to stay the course in a conflict. I believe they now know otherwise.
Re: paying for the reconstruction of Iraqs schools, hospitals and business community, I think the idea is that we pay for it now and they pay us back when their country gets back on its feet. I can almost guarantee that the level of service will be nowhere near what people in this country deem inadequate. The schools will not be airconditioned day care centers like they are in this country, but institutes of learning. The hospitals will be nowhere near as advanced as the ones in this country but the level of care will be adequate. They won't getan MRI for a sprained ankle but it will be adequate. The same with the business community. If that isn't gotten going so the Iraqi economy can recover, we'll be supporting them for the rest of their and our lives.
The reason health care is so expensive in this country is because of the level and type of care we as a nation have come to demand. There are hundreds of tests and most of them are not necessary; expensive drug therapies instead of simple surgery. The list is endless.
And our education system is a joke. I was talking to Skeptic about it this mornung and he told me of a study that had just been completed that tested the reading levels of recent high-cshool graduates. They read -on average- at a level of 4.8. That's fourth grade, eighth month. That means that they can't even read a newspaper since they are aimed at an 8th grade reading level.
The only thing that anyone can think to do is to throw more money at it problem. That approach hasn't worked for years, why should it work now. The very latest thing is to make the teachers accountable. All that's going to do is drive the competent teachers out of the profession because they know that no one can teach in an environment where the kids don't care and the parents cna't be bothered to be involved.
Do you want to know why private schools are so successful and post such high test scores? Because they attract the best teachers with high salaries? Because they take only the brightest kids?
Nope.
It's because they demand that the parents be actively involved with their childs education. The few public schools that have good parental involvment post good test scores as well.
But it's easier to throw money at the problem.
The problem that we have with health care, education and welfare lies in the expectations that we have of what they are supposed to give us, as if we have no responsibility for anything ourselves. If something is wrong, the Government is supposed to fix it for us. If we have a weight problem that makes us prone to heart trouble, have another beer, the Government will take care of everything.
Is Johnny spending more time playing video games than doing homework? Call the school and complain about the amount of homework he has. G-d forbid we should make him actually DO his homework. We might miss "Friends".
The money that we spend rebuilding Iraq we'll get back. The money that we spend on schools and social programs will be as wasted as if we had burned it.
Because money is not the answer to most of our problems and no one wants to admit it.

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