Gross impoliteness

[James A. Landau]

Sagehen posted the following colophon:

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
    DIE FOR OIL?   * * *   LET GEORGE DO IT!
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^





This is grossly impolite.

The claim that the US was going to war for lower oil prices, or for oil in general, is a slander that was made about the FIRST President Bush and the Gulf War.  Yes, I say slander.

I distinctly remember that there was a fair amount of opposition to going to war in the Persian Gulf among the Democrats in Congress.  (I honestly do not recall about Congressional Republicans; the Democrats were much more memorable).  But did anyone in Congress get up and say, as someone said about Korea, "Wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time"?  (Sorry, I don't have the YBQ handy to check that quote).  No.  The only things that were made against the Gulf War was the slander that G. H. W. Bush was going to war for oil (specifically for cheap oil) and the disingenuous argument that if Bush extended the deadline, Saddam would negotiate seriously or something.

So now it is a decade and a half later and what do I see when I read through my ADS-L digest?  A slander that doesn't gain anything by having been recycled.

I say this is both grossly impolite to the list and totally out of place in a list whose purpose is to provide a forum for gathering information on philological questions.  I ask Sagehen to stop posting political messages on this list and to apologize to the list.

    - James A. Landau
      Test Engineer
      Northrop-Grumman, Information Technology Division
      8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
      West Atlantic City  NJ  08232  USA







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