roach1161

thanks for responding to that post. For what it's worth, I just thought I'd tell you outside of the post that the Egyptian street has a serious beef with the U.S. for their unceasing support of Hosni Mubarek, the Egyptian "President" (Read: Dictator) Mubarek is a serial violator of human rights and has consistently imprisoned Democracy Advocates inside Egypt throughout his interminable stay in power, precisely for the same reason Saddam does. Without U.S. support in the way of money, arms and training, the Mubarek regime would fall. They are the number 2 recipient of U.S foreign aid, with support on average of $2 Billion every year since I was born (1974). Egyptians like and want Democracy. Mubarek will not allow it. The U.S. backs him.

When I was in the 101st, all of our Mission Orders during training were against North Korea and Syria. Syria was the number two state-sponsor of terrorism back then (1997) and honestly, I'm not sure where they fall now. The Syrians are also ruled by a Ba'athist Majority (the same party Hussein is ruler of in Iraq) and while they haven't been acting up lately, it's a huge jump to say that they're friends of the U.S. I honestl;y don't know enough about the current situation on Syria to make the case that they Hate us, but I can say that hardly any Arab in the Middle East appreciates the US support of Israel.

You stated in your post that you didn't know whether they hated us or not, so I appreciate the honesty. Having served for four years in the Infantry, I can only say that I think you should keep it that way and focus on your job and the troops you've been given. (this only applies to members of the armed forces; I think civilians have a moral and civic DUTY to learn as much as they can about shit before they agree to send people off to put themselves and others into harm's way) Life is long for some, and there will be plenty of time to study U.S. policy at some other point, but as long as you're 'in' I just think the risk is too high that certain information would conflict with any given mission, and there's just no room for that in a combat unit. Anything that might cause hesitation at the moment of truth is not a good thing in that line of work. (thats just my opinion)

If you deploy, I wish you the best. peace.

[Edited on Mar 06, 2003]