We are talking about America's History, when the nation was being built.
I also wasn't attempting to 'compare' degrees of brutality, or to say
that other nations have not had brutal histories. I was trying to point
out that indeed America was not exempt from this period of brutality as
implied by John Stanley.
The settling and subsequent formation of the United States of America
was brutal.
According to America, isn't Iraq now going through a major process of
'nation building' ?
The Arawaks were wiped out by the Colonial powers.
The Caribs , the more warlike tribe of the Amerindians, survive to this
day in Dominica and in Trinidad.
My girlfriend is a direct descendent of the Dominican Caribs.
And yes, that temper and warlike-ness is genetic.
I can see how they survived, although sometimes I fear that laid-back
lovable me may not!
;-P
-Gel
-----Original Message-----
From: Lyons, Larry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Remember Gel none of us are exactly innocent. Look at the brutal
suppression
of the natives of the various islands by the colonial and post colonial
powers. For instance weren't the Carib people wiped out by the Spanish
and
British and their settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries?
Similarly there have been similar incidents in Mexico and in South
America
with the native rulers. Didn't the Incas and Aztecs slaughter thousands
of
prisoners and slaves in single day long events? The Iroquois wiped out
the
Hurons in southern Canada, and throughout the history of North America
there
have been plenty of incidents of cannibalism, genocide, torture and what
we
now call ethnic cleansing by various native tribes on others.
Wasn't it Tamerlane that beheaded every inhabitant of Baghdad in the
13th
century and created a pyramid of their heads? And that was just one of
many
massacres he committed.
In other words while the US is guilty of many things, in its formation,
its
been far less brutal than many nations. At no point in its recent
history
has it followed an official policy of armed and active retribution like
the
Germans did in the two world wars.
Lets keep some perspective here.
larry
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