Don't Shoot Us. We're Wearing White Cowboy Hats. The Bad Guys Wear Black Turbans. Why doesn't the rest of the world accept that the U.S.A. is all about spreading democracy and freedom around the world, like Dubya says? Short Answer: They read. They remember. They have learned to watch what our government does rather than what it says. The very atrocities we condemn today, we condoned in the eighties. Case in point...Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Greg Palast's brief history lesson. in his commentary today: "1979: Seizes power with US approval; moves allegiance from Soviets to USA in Cold War. 1980: Invades Iran, then the "Unicycle of Evil," with US encouragement and arms. 1982: Reagan regime removes Saddam's regime from official US list of state sponsors of terrorism. 1983: Saddam hosts Donald Rumsfeld in Baghdad. Agrees to "go steady" with US corporate suppliers. 1984: US Commerce Department issues license for export of aflatoxin to Iraq useable in biological weapons. 1988: Kurds in Halabja, Iraq, gassed. 1987-88: US warships destroy Iranian oil platforms in Gulf and break Iranian blockade of Iraq shipping lanes, tipping war advantage back to Saddam". Let's close the Frankenstein factory; Vote the Neoconservatives out of office, shut down the School of the Americas, and bend the swords into plowshares. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1214-08.htm