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When I first went to Central America, riding the chicken buses everywhere, traveling alone, I was rather fearful/nervous, particularly traveling thru El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, that I might run across someone with a keen sense of history, an elephantine memory, with lots of pent-up anger towards Americans, any American, and that I might be attacked and be a sacrificial lamb, but it astounded me how friendly, accepting they were. I would almost call it all a mystery! Many times, I just wanted to take someone aside and say: I'm so sorry for what we did to you, in the past!
Let's call it projection, for if I had been one of them, seeing an American, traveling alone, I don't think I would have let an opportunity like this pass me by.
Perhaps it's the same down there, they're intelligent enough to realize it's our leaders/the CIA that were to blame, and I, blameless.
Now, I don't think I'd be brave enough to ride the local buses in Iraq!
Why would they hate you as an individual? You are not your government, and they are not their government. I find all us "little people" to be more similar than different; we all want to live life peacefully, to find happiness and contentment, however it may be defined.
What is the point of holding onto anger and hate for past transgressions? It cannot change what happened; it only serves to poison one’s ability to live life to the fullest, here and now. And passing that hatred onto our children will only serve to poison their chance to live THEIR life to its fullest.
The best we can do is to learn from our mistakes in order to better make conscious decisions not to repeat them.
When I first went to Central America, riding the chicken buses everywhere, traveling alone, I was rather fearful/nervous, particularly traveling thru El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, that I might run across someone with a keen sense of history, an elephantine memory, with lots of pent-up anger towards Americans, any American, and that I might be attacked and be a sacrificial lamb, but it astounded me how friendly, accepting they were. I would almost call it all a mystery! Many times, I just wanted to take someone aside and say: I'm so sorry for what we did to you, in the past!
Let's call it projection, for if I had been one of them, seeing an American, traveling alone, I don't think I would have let an opportunity like this pass me by.
Perhaps it's the same down there, they're intelligent enough to realize it's our leaders/the CIA that were to blame, and I, blameless.
Now, I don't think I'd be brave enough to ride the local buses in Iraq!
Thats interesting. So if you see a Japanese person walking down the street, are you going to beat them up because they attacked Pearl Harbor? They murdered peaceful soldiers and couldn't have cared less if their bombs hit civilians. They would have murdered and raped in America, had they been able to enter this nation (see Nanking).
Are you going to beat up a Muslim because of 9/11?
As for Iraq, we deposed a disgusting, evil, villainous dictator named Saddam Hussein. Not the worst thing we ever did...
We spent a trillion dollars to empower an Iranian client state and ethnically-cleanse half of Iraq's ancient Christian population. Iraq is currently in a civil war. That's a good example of selfish private interests "capturing" the US foreign policy/military apparatus and using it to their own ends.
OK, Mr. 4 posts. We napalmed and bombed with war planes and helicopters among other things. Regardless where in Vietnam the troops were put on the ground, there was a lot of killing ordered by our generals. I blame the politicians and generals. The troops do not have much say. I think some people are splitting hairs. Thanks for sharing.
If you actually think that your hundreds of posts give you some 'status' over people like myself who haven't posted here before, you are pretty pathetic.
What is this, "ageism" on citydata? No one can judge a person's age, experience, or arguing ability by how long they've been on citydata. Besides, who gets "intimidated" by someones reputation or age on this website anyway?
Yeah, that's hilarious. The fact that some of us may actually have been published in somewhat more prestigious publications means nothing to cheeseman.
Although I don't understand why Vietnam doesn't hate the US. One would think they'd be more anti-American than any other country in the world and that they'd hate the US more than Arab and Muslim nations, but they don't. They genuinely like Americans and they want the US military back in their country to protect them from China.
Also, keep in mind that at least half the country is angry at the US not for fighting there, but for abondoning them to the communists. Having been there a few times, I can assert that 90% of the population - North and South - want to be allies and friends with Uncle Sam. Strange that a terrible, failed war should give rise to admiration on the part of our former enemies, but that seems to be the case. Even General Vo Nguyen Giap, the mastermind of North Vietnam's war against the South, said "The Americans were honorable enemies.". Nice compliment considering the source.
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Just a little misunderstanding. Turned out ok in the end though.
Many times, I just wanted to take someone aside and say: I'm so sorry for what we did to you, in the past!
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