The US has demonized at one time or another pretty much everyone in the world.

Everyone in the Rest Of the World has at one time or another demonized the US.

Rhetoric is rhetoric is rhetoric. Everyone preaches to an audience. That's the game.

Don't believe your own propaganda. Don't believe your own rhetoric. It's basic.

Everyone is translated to fit some particular agenda, and after a spinning translation the statements are cherry-picked to make the author's point, or reinforce what his audience wants to believe.

I call Bush dumb as a post. Obviously he's not that stupid. Fit's my agenda. Rhetoric.

People on these boards still believe that the Palestinians want to "drive Israel into the sea". Well, of course they want to, and the Israelis ARE driving the Palestinians into the sea.

The point is that Israel, with it's IDF, nuclear weapons, support from the US, ain't gonna get "driven into the sea". They can't stop the Palestinians from robbing their banks, arresting their elected officials, killing their children. But some Palestinian said it, and it's become Gospel for a considerable number of people.

The rhetoric is about as substantial as a bird's feathers - sometimes colorful, sometimes big until you turn them edge on, can hang 'em on the wall and look at them forever, but not what's really for dinner.

Don't listen to the words. Watch the actions. That goes for about everything.

Arf