Belgian continues attack agaist Lawrence & the U.S.

Kraus writes, READER BEWARE more of the same, Why I disagree with Mr Helm.

Lawrence said, “You first of all wonder what an attack is.”

Two things Lawrence: Was your home attacked? Was your home library under siege? What did you suffer on 9/11 other than some sort of surrogate hypersensibilities for your extreme leftist NYers who you don't like anyway? Your SYMBOL was attacked. That some 3,000 odd people died in that attack is nothing. Think of how many equally innocent Iraqi CIVILIANS your own government has killed and compare the two equations. As you said yourself in some posts before, the amount dead is insignificant compared to...

Secondly, just because your twin towers and your pentagon, two symbols of evil in the sane world, were attacked, does not mean that *I* have to sympathise with you. I've ALWAYS hated the French. Remember they make up half of my country. They are lazy dogs and they are swarthy skinned and they are inferior. Belgium succeeds because of French bureaucracy and Flemish work ethic. Yet your alleged enemy the French supported you after 9/11. They said they were Americans because they empathised with you. We Flemish never said that. We aren't your dogs.

I also don't like the Arabs. I don't like the Turks nor the Moroccans in my country. They are a symbol of a Moorish past who are trying to reclaim not only Spain but my country as well.

Your whimpering about 9/11 only shows you have no concept of history. Americans, now that they think Arabs think they are weak, overcompensate with bombs - hey big American bombs kill. Big shot yet still so frightened by 9/11 you are willing to bankrupt your entire country and alienate yourself from the rest of the world just to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. In football, we call that scared of the crowd. You choked. You had your chance to rise ABOVE the moment and instead, you chose the easy road. You have failed. There will be no democracy in Iraq. Your stupid president's father had enough sense to know that. But your stupid president doesn't. Maybe because he has "jesus" on his side. Good luck with that one.

You insult me with your reductionist rendition of European history. We Belgians don't have the luxury of sending 70,000 kids to death like your American government did in Vietnam. WWII was before I was born. Nevertheless, if a similar country, let's say the USA, invaded Belgium today, it would still make no sense to resist in your terms. We would resist like the Iraqis resist your capitalist bullshit. Let you in and then blow you up, one little army man body part by another.

Another stupid thing you suggest Mr Helm is that your rendition of how wars are fought must be the only rendition.

In case you hadn't grasped it yet, the entire point of terrorism is to fight the giant mechanisms of stupidity like America. You don't have to be fought on YOUR terms. You have to be fought on the terms of the people you are invading. Good luck with that one. I pity the idiot mothers and fathers who are proud to have their children come home in body bags for a president who spends more on his inauguration party than he does on body armour for his troops. Especially funny in that your president never fought in a war. Hoho, funny times. Can Mr Bush tell us what it was like to be invaded in WWII?

Frankly, I'm not even sure why I engage you in writing at all other than because of this listserve's emails come in my box and then wham, I'm greeted by emails like your own that frankly, wobble my belief in humanity.

All the best keeping the sane in line Lawrence,

you are still welcomed to see the real world here if you care to take the blinders off.

Kraus

Antwerpen

Lawrence responds,

A very interesting note, Kraus! You seem to have more prejudices than anyone I know. I actually like the French as a people but didn’t care for Chirac. I do like Sarkozy and think our relations may be looking up. I don’t like the French’s Welfare Statism’s emphasis on entitlements but that doesn’t cause me to hate the – as you do the Arabs, Turks and Moroccans. I knew a lot of Arab engineers when I worked for McDonnell Douglas and Boeing and got along with them fine. I suppose this part of the conversation demonstrates why Timothy Ash was right when he said we Americans make our immigrants feel more welcome than you Europeans do.

You imply that I shouldn’t take 9/11 seriously. My home library hasn’t been put under siege; so why do I favor remaking the Middle East in our image? Your question is a puzzle. My study doesn’t need to be attacked, America was attacked. I care about that. Any American president would care about that. If Bush wasn’t willing to do something about the 9/11 attack, we would have been extremely unhappy with him. One of his jobs is to keep America secure and protected.

I have a dog named Ginger who whimpers, but I don’t. I don’t think many would characterize America’s posture as “whimpering.” Also, you say I have no concept of history . . . that would be one of the subjects I’ve been interested in. I rather think you’re wrong there. If you have a greater understanding of history you’ve been keeping it to yourself.

You keep talking about bombs; which shows you haven’t been reading my notes. We don’t think bombs impress the Arabs. In an earlier note I said that bombs dropped the way Clinton dropped them didn’t impress the Arabs. In Afghanistan and Iraq we used “smart” bombs that bombed specific targets, but we put boots on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Another stupid thing you suggest is “Another stupid thing you suggest Mr. Helm is that your rendition of how wars are fought must be the only rendition.” Nonsense. If I’ve made general comments, then they are generally accepted. As to the current war against Terror, I am clearly finding fault with the Leftist anti-American view. It is poorly thought out, not based on fact, possessing an inadequate view of history, lazy, swarthy-skinned (to borrow one of your anathemas) and inferior. Note: we are in no danger of being bankrupt by our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those expenses are averaging 1% of our GDP. And as to the “body bags.” The total number of Americans killed thus far in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t equal the numbers killed in some battles fought between the Germans and the Allies (excluding, of course the Belgians) during World Wars one and two in your neighborhood. Don’t whimper for us about body bags.

You write, “In case you hadn’t grasped it yet, the entire point of terrorism is to fight the giant mechanisms of stupidity like America. You don’t have to be fought on YOUR terms. You have to be fought on the terms of the people you are invading.” Terrorism is called asymmetric warfare. We understand it quite well. We also understand how to stop it. We are engaged in a process that will stop it – unless your anti-American compatriots over here subvert the process. An interesting tangent we might explore is how you reconcile your pro-Islamist, anti-American stance to European Humanism

You write “I pity the idiot mothers and fathers who are proud to have their children come home in body bags for a president who spends more on his inauguration party than he does on body armour for his troops.” I suppose this means we can’t count on you to help when the next Rogue state wants to fight Western Liberal Democracy. Not to worry. We can manage.

Lawrence Helm