Folks, this one just isn't going away, is it?
I'd like to make some comments -- probably too long.
There is deep emotion on both sides, and although you know by my posts here and on the original thread which I started about the downing of the EP-3, there rapidly appeared a special dislike for Americans in many of the postings.
Those in these posts attack America with vengeance, with one poster calling the U.S. the most corrupt government in the world. He admits he's not an American. He does not live in America. How would he know?
By my "Colonial" spelling, I guess you know by now that I am an American. Some of you may want to stop reading right now, because your bile is starting to work itself upward.
For those that want to continue, I live and work in Latvia, an Eastern European country. I don't want to get sued, nor do I want PPruNe to get sued, so let it suffice for me to say that there are a number of countries they should send American government employees, not to teach democracy and Western accounting skills, but to learn how to rip off their own people. It would be an eye-opener.
Just to show you how ridiculous this thread has become, I've seen anti-Americans posting reactions to a CNN story as the Gospel truth, but the moment CNN showed the videos of the Chinese interceptors within feet of a EP-3, they immediately lambasted CNN for favoring America. These same videos have been shown on mostly all world TV networks (except Chinese, North Korean and other sympathizing bedfellows). Where is the objectivity?
Fighter jocks tend to be aggressive. If they were passive, they'd be dead right away in a dog fight. However, there is a thin line drawn between being aggressive and getting the adrenalin pumped up to the point where you can't function properly or logically, anymore.
Someone mentioned that the United States is selling grain to third world countries which stymies the local growing economy because they can't compete.
So why don't they grow wheat/barley/oats -- any kind of grain -- in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan? Quite the opposite. The U.S. and other Western countries GIVE grain to these countries FOR FREE to keep people alive, because their own corrupt system is so tribal clan oriented that it refuses to even give first aid to a rival clan. They could drill for water. Western relief agencies have and succeeded.
Humanitarian air drop planes have been shot down and shot at too many times. My hats off to these daring pilots to even think about putting their lives at risk and extending a helping hand to save these starving people.
Do we even have to get into the governments of Central and South America and most governments in Asia, the latest being border fights between Bangla Desh and India. How about those Indonesian disputes. How many have been killed there because of the warlords. Again I can go on and on.
Spying EP-3s. Also, many of you that are lambasting the U.S. don't know that much of the information gathered on these fly-bys are shared by the Americans with the British, French, Germans, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese, Koreans... Do I need to go on? Much of this information is making, or will make, your life better in the future, it is hoped, because we need to know what the Chinese are planning for the future.
As far as your reference to the U.S. as being the aggressor, think back a few years. What swarming hordes unexpectedly crossed international boundaries (the 38th parallel) to invade Korea and tried to take the whole peninsula during the Korean War. A lot of Allied soldiers died because of that -- some of them may be your fathers -- and interestingly enough, percentage wise, Turkey suffered the highest amount of casualties. What country started a mini-war with Russia in the 60s.
And during the Cultural Revolution, there were wholesale arrests of the intelligensia and executions, just to protect a one man's idea of an autocratic and corrupt system and a farcical little "Red Book." Do you really thing the system has changed so much?
I'm not advocating breaking relations with China. Far from it. The West needs the Chinese as they need the West, because there is billions of billions of foreign currency flowing through China. If that stops, we're really in big s*it.
What I'm saying is this. Think carefully who you're backing. I think the new American administration has been handling this very carefully and very correctly. Remember Japan in the 30s and the early 40s? One country, two countries, three countries, four. And the list goes on.
"Where the hell are the Americans to help us out of this mess?" they said at that time. They came. And they probably will come again.