Steelheart: The technology we make use of has very little to do with
the active foreign policy of the US. The technology we make us of is
built on inventions of many non-americans. For example, the first
cathode ray tube scanning device was invented by Karl Braun, a
German scientist, in 1897. The "World Wide Web" was invented by
Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 while working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
BatMUD is running on an lpc driver, lpc being a language developed by
Lars Pensjö, a swede. Sure, there is a heavy influence from the US in
todays modern technology, but it's absurd to claim that one can't
criticize US policies on the Internet because the Internet was "invented"
in the US. That's like saying the US papers can't complain about Schroeder
since Gutenberg invented the printing press (in 1440-1450) in Germany.

It's an equally false lie to assume that liberty and freedom of speech
equals the US. In Petition of Rights was passed in the English parliament
in 1628, and guaranteed freedom of speech. The American constitution was
adopted in (the first states) in 1787. The freedom to vote was given to
US women in 1920, long after New Zealand had granted the same right in
1893 (followed by Finland in 1906). The beacon of freedom should be the
United Nations, which in 1948 approved the Universal declaration of
Human Rights, and any nation which is quick to throw the first stone and
point out flaws in the civil liberties of other nations, should make
damn sure that it has no civil rights issues of its own (especially
articles 2, 5 and 9).

The UN was formed after WW2 to provide a forum in which to deal with
global issues and security concerns, a role which the US as a founding
signatory approved. Yet President Bush states that the UN should do
what the US wants it to do, or the UN will become obsolete. In effect,
the US government wants UN only to rubberstamp the right of aggression
against Iraq, despite objections from many other security council
members. Is this democracy?

And as a final note, geography is important if you agree with an
aggressive foreign policy. Until Jim the Alabama Redneck gets a clue
about global geographics, he believes the crap the White house spews
out about imminent military threats by Iraq against the US ("Gee Lurlene,
those no good towelhead Iraqis are invading us"). Had he bothered
to learn a bit of geography, he might understand that Iraq is further
away than his truck will go without a refuel, and vote for the guy that
does something good for the US instead of for the guy that paints up
the most horrific images of imaginary enemies.

Disclaimer: My views and opinions are against the political branch of
the US government. I have no quarrel with the average US citizen, nor
do I believe europeans to be any smarter than the average US citizen,
nor do I hate the USA as a country - it has, along with the evil, brought
much good into the world too.