Um, not the greatest examples, Pat

Nicolas, I do know of the train bombings and believe me my heart goes out to those families. Becaue of 911 we (especially NYC) know the horror of these teorrists acts.

I hear today that it is possible that Al Queda is planning to enter the US via Mexico possibly with nuclear weapons. (see link). Living in California, this is terrifying to me. Although the article says they are talking with Fox on it NOW, neither our President or our Governor has ever taken serious enough control over our borders, even since 911.

As sad as it may be, we are living in a time when we can't as "readily" welcome with open arms anyone who crosses over to our country.

Now, if an attack does occur (I believe it will somewhere in the US anyway), with this potential warning, and still lack of action, the blame will be solely on our leader. I simply don't buy the "lack of manpower", etc. It has to be done. This is something that should have been addressed more urgently right after the 911 attack.

I love my country and would live no where else for sure. But the day I feel I have to agree with every decision our leader makes, will be a sad day for the "land of the free."


web page

TIS

You shouldnt be so warned, i think and hope that bin laden doesnt have the capacity to do a big terrorist attack in the us.

Yea you sure make a great case Pat. Damned us for questioning those highly respected and beloved leaders. But I do admit to bashing other foreign leaders like you said Nicholas. Jacques Sharaq (I have no idea how to spell it) of France for example. But the only difference is that I did not post that on a French website and nor would I ever. So feel free to have an opinion buddy, but dont be surprised when your resented after you voice it to certain people.

Just because they don't/didn't have Democracies doesn't mean they weren't loved by their people. -Pat

TIS, with all due respect, how can we take the opinion from a country whose people caved in to terrorism and elected a government that the terrorists forced them into electing? I cannot, in good conscience, respect an opinion from a country who acts like that!

Nicholas, I am not saying that you specifically voted the way that the terrorists scared your fellow people to vote for, or that any other memeber on these boards who is from Spain specifiaclly voted that way. What I am trying to point out is that now the current government of Spain, who was elected out of fear from terrorism, will in all likelyhood bash America and it's President to the citizens of Spain every chance that it gets! So Nicholas and other members of this board who are from Spain, it is not your personal opinions that I will not respect, but it is the source of information that has made you form those opinions that I do not have the respect to listen to. I sincerely do hope that you understand that I am not attacking your opinion personally.


Don Cardi

Don Cardi, im so sad and offended about your post... you have no idea of what youre talking about....terrorist forcing Spain to elect a government? do you think we are silly, man? youre insulting us in a way i cant believe...
FIRST OF ALL, surely you dont know this but in Spain there is a terrorist band called ETA, similar to IRA in ireland, which since 1975 has killed more than 2000 civilians ,policemen and politicians in my country. they want Pais Vasco(a region of my country, my country is divided in a similar way as the USA is in states ) to be out of spain, with any sense.
Last time they attacked was this summer putting a bomb in a parking near the beach, in the CITY WHERE I LIVE.
if we were caved to terrorism as you said, our governments , the conservative we have for the last 8 years or the socialist we have now, for example, would have decided to give ETA what they want, but we havent....Man, we face terrorism EVERY YEAR here since 1973 or so.... we hate terrorism ,we hate AL QUAEDA, we hate Bin Laden.... the only thing we are doing is supporting France, Germany and our european allies at this moment,...does that mean we are forced by terrorist to elect our govermnet?
My country chose our new president mainly because it was time for a change after 8 years with the conservative party(may i say ultraconservative in some ways)... is that a sin?
Don Cardi, really, you have offended me so much with your post..... and remember this.. our new president has sent a message congratulating Mr, BUSH for his reelection...and he has got no reply

Regardless of their principles, there are people who vehemently HATE each of these men.

Arafat? Many Palestinians think he was a corrupt figurehead who delayed the peace process. Saddam? I mean, do we even have to go into the actual history here?

Regardless of their principles, there are people who vehemently HATE each of these men.

Arafat? Many Palestinians think he was a corrupt figurehead who delayed the peace process. Saddam? I mean, do we even have to go into the actual history here? [/b][/quote]You hit my point precisely. For example, why is it ok for us to bash Castro because he doesn't run a democracy? We're 'allowed' to say we hate him as much as we want. If someone says they hate Bush, they're called a commie and anti-American. -Pat

I bash Castro because of the CMC and the economic plight he places upon his country. Clearly, people are willing to risk life and limb to leave Cuba. There is a difference between good and bad points to a leader and the majority of people under his power wanting a change in power.

I think you misunderstood DC. Your people elected a President who (to my knowledge) was supported by the ETA and he said he'd pull Spain's troops out of Iraq. The terrorists definetly support your new President, but it seems like your people decided to take the easy way out and instead of fighting these ETA, you made an agreement. You elect the President who takes troops out of Iraq and they won't have anymore attacks. I believe ETA does have a connection to Al Quaeda too. -Pat

The minority of people under his power want a chance in power. Not a majority. Cubans would've had ATLEAST one major rebellion if the majority of people there don't like Castro. Just remember, if Castro wasn't there now, Cuba would be a whole lot poorer. Remember Batista?

Pat you confused me with that statement. I don't want to get into an argument over the Iraq war but just simply answer this question for me (yes or no is all I need) are you FOR a war against Al Qaeda?

Pat you confused me with that statement. I don't want to get into an argument over the Iraq war but just simply answer this question for me (yes or no is all I need) are you FOR a war against Al Qaeda? [/quote]I am FOR a war against Al Quaeda, who we located in Afghanistan. I am AGAINST you telling me that Saddam and Al Quaeda have ties, so just stop now or we're gonna go all out.

I asked for a simple yes or no yet you choose to say that.

I specifically stated I didn't want to get into an argument about Iraq yet you STILL had to say something about it. Can you ever answer a question without trying to turn it into some kind of an argument?

I asked for a simple yes or no yet you choose to say that.

I specifically stated I didn't want to get into an argument about Iraq yet you STILL had to say something about it. Can you ever answer a question without trying to turn it into some kind of an argument? [/quote]Why would I reply with one word when you would reply about Iraq and Al Quaeda? You want my answer? One word? Do I want us to take out Al Quaeda? Yes.

Because I said I wasn't going to.

pat,i think you completely misunderstood my whole post!!!!!!
ETA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ALQUAEDA!!!!!!!
and ETA hates my president and the conservative president we have before , in fact they both are THREATEN TO DEATH!!!
please, if youre interested read the post again, you completely misunderstood it.... ETA is just very similar as the IRA in Ireland.

I Dont know how to explain it in a way that you all can understand it but OUR PRESIDENT SENT TROOPS BACK TO SPAIN, BECAUSE 90%OF SPANISH PEOPLE WANTED TO.

Do you realize how selfish your country was when they did that Nicholas? By backing out, Spain sent a message to the terorists that their plan is succesful and will work again. You guys put the whole word in danger, and I will never respect Spain simply for that reason.

Well raggingbull, if you dont respect one country only because people in it think different than in yours about the war, thats your problem. Here we were against the war before it started and before having any attack,as most of the EU countries were.And , if our president is the bin ladens friend , why alqaeda wanted to make an attack in spain last week????(fortunately the police arrest the terrorist befoure they made it).

I posted based on what I learned last year in Spanish after the train bombings. -Pat

Well, your teacher doesnt have too much knowledges about the matter.

PAT , as i read in some posts, i have an idea of what your beliefs and political opinions are, maybe im wrong, dont know, but i totally think you would applaud the decisions our new government has made.

The minority of people under his power want a chance in power. Not a majority. Cubans would've had ATLEAST one major rebellion if the majority of people there don't like Castro. Just remember, if Castro wasn't there now, Cuba would be a whole lot poorer. Remember Batista? [/b][/quote]Really? If it's so great, why are people risking their lives to come to America? I thought we were the shithole of the world. Who's to say what Cuba could've been without Castro. My guess is, a whole lot better off.

I never said I liked or didn't like Spain was doing. I just posted my feelings on the ETA.

The minority of people under his power want a chance in power. Not a majority. Cubans would've had ATLEAST one major rebellion if the majority of people there don't like Castro. Just remember, if Castro wasn't there now, Cuba would be a whole lot poorer. Remember Batista? [/b][/quote]Really? If it's so great, why are people risking their lives to come to America? I thought we were the shithole of the world. Who's to say what Cuba could've been without Castro. My guess is, a whole lot better off. [/b][/quote]What about the people leaving America to go to Canada or Mexico because Bush is now President? Cuba could've been better off without Castro? Batista was one of the most brutal dictators to ever rule. -Pat

OK small technical point, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is the PRIME MINISTER of Spain, not the President. Spain is a constitutional monarchy and does not have a President.

Both can be considered brutal dictators, although Castro appears to possibly be mellowing a bit with age. Both assassinated or imprisoned their political opponents. The Cuban people are/were impoverished under both.

I say it's a tossup.

senza mama, sorry but youre wrong, here we call jl zapatero or whoever is the president THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT ,the king is the boss of the state, but he doesnt take any deccision, hes like the Queen of England, mainly he does representative functions... i know in England is called PRIME MINISTER ,But here not

of course, the president of the government consults important decisions with the King , but he only gives his opinion and his Sign, he doesnt make any deccision

Well you're right Nicolas but the title "El Presidente del Gobierno" is always translated into English as Prime Minster. In English, Zapatero or whoever is always referred to as the Prime Minster of Spain, never the President of Spain. Indeed if you look at official press releases from the Spanish government you will see both Presidente del Gobierno and Primer Ministro used. Perhaps this is because the head of the Spanish government acts more like a British Prime Minister than an American President.

A quote from a speech by JM Aznar

"La visita del Primer Ministro de Polonia, Jerzy Buzek, buen amigo, como ustedes saben, se enmarca dentro de los acuerdos de Polonia y España y de la Declaración que firmamos en el año 1998, en la cual establecimos que los Primeros Ministros nos reuniríamos, como mínimo, una vez al año. En consecuencia, éste es el encuentro anual del Primer Ministro de Polonia y del Presidente del Gobierno de España."