Real Friends Say No</bitle> </head <body> <h3>Real Friends Say No </h3> <a href="http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=124450&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=226&mode=nested&cid=10443698">Reply to a slashdot article</a><p> <blockquote> <I>How naive. France's Jacques Chirac, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other Iraq oil-for-food scam artists don't want America to succeed. </i><P> </blockquote> Yes - men are not friends. They are fawning parasites hoping to get a free ride on your coattails <P> If you're about to walk into what I'm <i>sure</i> is a nasty minefield, and I don't follow you, it doesn't mean that I don't want you to make it to the other side. It means that I like my feet firmly attached to my legs. <P> If before I stop walking, I say to you (multiple times) "<b>don't go there, it's a frikin minefield!!!</b>", it doesn't mean that I don't like you, it means that I think that you'd be better off with your feet attached to your legs too. <P> If I think you're crossing the minefield for all the wrong reasons, and there's a far safer crossing 5 miles down the road, <b>and I tell you so</b>, it doesn't mean I'm your enemy. It means that I prefer you alive to dead. <P> If your idea of a friend is someone who will quietly escort you into a minefield, knowing that you're both likely to die to no good effect, then don't expect me to be your friend. <P> If I think my friends are doing something dangerous and stupid and counterproductive (especially all three!), I will say so, and refuse to abet their constructive suicide. I expect no less from my own friends. <P> If I think a friend is embarked on a noble but dangerous journey -- but with the best plan possible under the circumstances, I will follow, and even lead them into the depths of hell and back. <p> ... and I would expect the same from them too. <hr width=30%> France tried to talk the US out of going into Vietnam and France tried to talk the US out of going into Iraq. Both appear to have turned into little more than a boon for arms manufacturers and funeral home proprietors. Where's the enemy in that? </BODY> <TAIL> <hr width=30%> <table style="width: 90%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <a href="/"><img src="../wimsey/green.GIF" align="bottom"></a> My Home Page </td> <td style="text-align: right;"> <a href="http://www.awp-hosting.com" target="awp-hosting.com"> <img src="http://www.awp-hosting.com/images/awp-hosting.com_trans.gif" border="0"> </a> <font color="black" size="2"> <b> <a href="http://www.awp-hosting.com" target="awp-hosting.com">Powered by awp-hosting.com™</a><br> </b></font></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <Address> Stephen Samuel (<a href="mailto:samuel@bcgreen.com">samuel@bcgreen.com</a>) </address> </TAIL> </HTML>