Letters to the Editor
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Maureen O'Donnell - this is a bit tangental. Sorry.
I take exception to most of what you write; but what really get's my goat is your holier than thou atitude. But I feel the need to discuss two of the many points you've made in your dense (though well-written) comments:
First, the crack about Colin Powell:
"I've noticed the endless repetition of the fallacy that Hillary Clinton "authorised" the invasion of Iraq and the deliberate avoidance of any criticism of Colin Powell who supplied misinformation to the UN five years ago this month"
If Colin Powell was running for president, or was even in public life at this point, I would say this constituted a double standard. However, Colin Powell RESIGNED his position, most likely over the fact that he was called on to lie for the Bush Administration, years ago. Despite the fact that many people like to bandy his name around as a possible VP or something, I haven't read an article with him saying anything attesting to his plans to do so.
"Although a more intelligent man, Senator Obama's experience of the outside world is similarly circumscribed. A few years in Indonesia as a child, a visit to his father's grave in Kenya, does not amount to foreign policy experience."
Look, I think it's asking a lot to have an American president who has years of experience crafting foreign policy as well as having the domestic experience to handle issues like Health Care, Tax Reform, etc, etc. I suppose in Ireland your leaders are all wizzes at both foreign policy and know everything about every country on the planet, but here in the U.S., being president entails a fair amount of on the job training. Bush's foreign policy wasn't his own policy; it was crafted by people like Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld and neo-con thinktanks, who btw, know alot about the foreign countries and have a lot of foreign policy experience.
Those were the two things that really bothered me about your post. And the fact that as a foreigner you feel the need to post these "lovely" but smug little diatribe about how stupid we Americans are. How sexist, (implying we are more sexist than Liberia even) and close-minded.
Here's what I have to say about your criticism of Americans: In my early twenties, I spent a year in Australia. One night, I told my rugby coach that Australians as a people suffer from low self-esteem because they still had the queen's face on their money. Granted, I was drunk on VB(mmm Victoria Bitter) , but I think my male coach was about to sock me in my very female jaw. We fought for hours. Then we made out. But I digress.
As an outsider, even someone who spent a fair amount of time around Australians, I made my judgement based on my own perceptions and prejudices. To be honest, though, I learned more about how I saw myself as an American. And as such, I learned how impossible it is to make any sort generalization about the soul of a people when you're on the outside looking in...so even though you may have spent years here, I take all of criticisms with a grain of salt.
Wow...this is the longest post ever. Time fer lunch!