From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 14:43:08 +0800
To: "Attila T. Hun" <paladin@lvcablemodem.com>
Subject: Re: putting down the US military
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980219140712.007bda40@pop3.lvcablemodem.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980220214430.008be9a0@popd.ix.netcom.com>
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>>PEOPLE DIED IN SOMALIA, including a personal friend of mine. 
>> They were all somebody's son, brother, and friend  [snip]
>    my oldest son's LAR recon/black unit had been stood down for
>    Somalia, gear turned in, etc.  
...
>    how do you think the all the families with sons, husbands,
>    lovers, siblings, etc. felt with the spectacle of a dead

Sorry to hear about your friend, and I'm glad your son got back.
A friend of mine lives in Somalia about half the time,
except when his wife's tribe's over in Ethiopia.  They've been through
years of civil war, in a society that until the colonialists
took over was extremely free and relatively peaceful (for a bunch of 
semi-nomadic cattle herders armed to the teeth like pre-industrial Swiss;
they tend to have occasional short armed squabbles when the
normal social structures for peacefully resolving differences fail)
and the wars for control of the post-colonial government have
made it impossible for their economy to do well during drought.

Michael's friends were quite pleased at kicking the UN's butts,
and at kicking the US Army's butts, but they thought that even
if there hadn't been a civil war going on, the idea of trying to 
disarm Somalis is blatantly foolish - you'd have better luck
trying to disarm an NRA convention, where people carry guns for fun
rather than to protect their families and livestock like Somalis.
After all, most NRA members believe in Nations and Governments;
Somalis believe in their families and tribes and the Law,
and any "leader" who expects blind obedience from his followers
quickly finds out that nobody's following him.

...
>    absolutely. misplaced criticism and a personal offense to me
>    as well as all other servicemen.

Sending US soldiers in to do a fool's errand like that should
offend you even more.   And telling a free people that they should
give up the guns they protect their families with because
the UN will take care of protecting them is an offense to them.
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639