Good Answers

[Beverly McD.]

Recent e-mail I received..........




I THOUGHT THIS WAS SOME GOOD ANSWERS GIVEN BY AMERICANS
DURING MEETINGS IN EUROPE:


When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by
the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example
of 'empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many
of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in
return is enough to bury those that did not return'.

It became very quiet in the room.

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international
engineers were taking part, including French and American.

During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room
saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent
an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does
he intend to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore
facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000
people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of
fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen
helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from
their flight deck.. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

Once again, dead silence.


A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.
At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of
Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone
was chatting away in Englis h as they sipped their drinks.

A French officer suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English'. He then asked, 'Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe its because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have
to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop!


I think it would be a good idea to mail this letter around the world to
let the people know how much could it help to have the right attitude
regarding the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

[NWMUSCLE]

GREAT POST!
I LOVE YOU!

[TrenAman]

that is a great post

[ILIEKFUDE]

I enjoyed reading it. I hope the quotes are true and not propaganda. I also hope in my heart that the Iraq situation wasnt empire building or RESOURCE driven PRIMARILY but ill accept them as a secondary consideration if "removal of a tyrant" and "liberating an oppressed people" were the primary drive because waging war without considering all the possible benefits/scenarios vs the cons (read: leaving a militarized tyranical threat in the middleast in power if you have an excuse to remove him) is idiotic. Regardless tho, it wasnt one single man who sent us to war. It was the majority of our representatives.

[Ulter]

Unfortunately they are not true. They have a little truth and a lot of embellishment.
It's amazing how fast that got around the internet.


The Truth
What most people want to know is whether Powell made this statement.
He did, although some other facts in the eRumor are incorrect.

First, Powell's statement was not made in England.
It was during a presentation to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland during January, 2003.

Second, the questioner was not the current Archbishop of Canterbury, but the former Archbishop, George Carey.

Third, Carey was not asking about "empire building."
He asked Powell whether the U.S. was relying too much on "hard power" such as military action as opposed to "soft power" such as appealing to the common values of the major religions and building trust based on those values.

Powell responded by affirming the "soft power" of values but that it was the "hard power" of the military that, for example, helped free Europe and so the "soft power" of peace and reconstruction could take place.

Powell then said, "We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works."

[Harleymarleybone]

Originally Posted by Ulter

Unfortunately they are not true. They have a little truth and a lot of embellishment.
It's amazing how fast that got around the internet.


The Truth
What most people want to know is whether Powell made this statement.
He did, although some other facts in the eRumor are incorrect.

First, Powell's statement was not made in England.
It was during a presentation to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland during January, 2003.

Second, the questioner was not the current Archbishop of Canterbury, but the former Archbishop, George Carey.

Third, Carey was not asking about "empire building."
He asked Powell whether the U.S. was relying too much on "hard power" such as military action as opposed to "soft power" such as appealing to the common values of the major religions and building trust based on those values.

Powell responded by affirming the "soft power" of values but that it was the "hard power" of the military that, for example, helped free Europe and so the "soft power" of peace and reconstruction could take place.

Powell then said, "We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works."

That only addresses Powell's remark. And his actual response was very good, too. What about the other two responses? I have heard people say things like that. Seems realistic. Good responses.

[solidspine]

I THOUGHT THIS WAS SOME GOOD ANSWERS GIVEN BY AMERICANS
DURING MEETINGS IN EUROPE:


When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by
the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example
of 'empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many
of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in
return is enough to bury those that did not return'.

It became very quiet in the room.

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international
engineers were taking part, including French and American.

During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room
saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent
an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does
he intend to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore
facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000
people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of
fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen
helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from
their flight deck.. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

Once again, dead silence.


A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.
At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of
Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone
was chatting away in Englis h as they sipped their drinks.

A French officer suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English'. He then asked, 'Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe its because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have
to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop!


I think it would be a good idea to mail this letter around the world to
let the people know how much could it help to have the right attitude
regarding the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Every body wants us to help them out, and there is no gratitude ever,


I say F them, and spend the money on our military, More bombs and nukes to protect Americans.

[Meau]

Come Ulter...the truth of a statement has no bearing once the embellished statement is published. It is the embellishment that will be remembered...and cited.

Give it another 10 years and we will have forgotten the original and will only subscibe the embellished version. The beautiful thing about the Internet is that it helps us remember (or at least find) the true original quote if we desire to do so.

Makes you wonder about all the stories / quotes before we had the Internet.