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...while Pat Robertson hasn't killed anyone at all. Can't say that about Osama, can we?
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Not as ineffective as Pat Robertson.
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http://www.holysmoke.org/wb/wb0239.htm
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These bright statistics don't obscure Robertson's notorious
involvement in Central America. It began with the March 1982 coup
in Guatemala which brought General Efrain Rios Montt to power.
Montt is a member of Gospel Outreach, a fundamentalist sect based
in Eureka, California. Within a week of the coup, Robertson flew
to Guatemala to meet with Montt.
Robertson told the New York Times (5/20/82) that CBN would
send missionaries and "more than a billion dollars" to Guatemala.
While this promise was not fully met, Montt used the pledges of
support from U.S. evangelicals to convince Congress that he would
not seek massive sums of U.S. aid.
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Pat doesn't just talk. He acts.
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In 1984 CBN donated $3 million to the contras through the
Nicaraguan Patriotic Association whose Vice President Juan Sacasa
is the Houston representative of the FDN. By the end of 1985 CBN
had supplied at least $7 million in aid to the contras, and to
the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala. These were not
secret contributions: Robertson solicited viewers' donations
through simulated mailgrams and a special May telethon for the
"freedom fighters."
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Political policy in the middle east, inspired by scripture!
What kind of people does Pat have influence over? He's a massive fund-raiser and volunteer-raiser for the Republican party. Obviously he has no influence with the government...
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/re...pat-robertson/
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In appreciation, the guerrillas named one of their units the Pat Robertson Brigade.
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As an aside, I've got a bridge to sell you.
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In September 1986, Pat announced that he would be willing to seek the Republican party's nomination for President if and only if three million people would sign up as volunteers on his campaign over the next year. It worked, and the political donations flowed in. Pat had generated a heaping war chest by the time he officially announced his candidacy in September 1987.
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The acts of a man with no influence.
He lost the 1988 nomination because he lied and claimed he was a combat marine, when he never saw a day of combat during his tour in Korea. If not for that, he was viewed as a decent chance of becoming the Republican nominee.
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Whatever the answer, Pat realized that he could never run for office again. It was pointless. But that didn't mean he couldn't get somebody else elected. He immediately set to work building his own political organization. He called it the Christian Coalition. It was conceived as Pat's attempt to insinuate himself into the Republican party leadership.
The Christian Coalition became a huge force, almost overnight. In a fundraising letter from the Democratic National Committee, the chairman wrote: "Pat Robertson has the most powerful political organization in America."
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A blaring neon example of the group's intentions to influence politics directly came on September 17th of 1997, when Pat Robertson addressed about 100 members of the Christian Coalition's state branches. He made a speech wherein he spoke admiringly of the Tammany Hall political machine and declared his desire to select the next President.
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In its heyday, the Christian Coalition campaigned hard for high-profile, Christian-minded candidates. They supported Oliver North's run for the Senate seat in Virginia. Likewise, John Ashcroft's Senate bid in Missouri. And, of course, they endorsed both George HW Bush (grudgingly) and George W Bush (enthusiastically) in their Presidential campaigns.
Then they got caught improperly using funds to promote specific candidates, and the FEC slapped them with fines. The membership dwindled, and Pat abandoned the organization in December 2001.
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No influence. Just a blowhard.
I disagree. Pat Robertson is dangerous. He encourages people, from sentators to members of your house of representatives, to voters, to volunteers, to support the use of the US military as an aggressive military force.
This makes him dangerous.
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 You sure like to hold grudges against entire nations years after the perpetrators are gone from power. Does it seem "quite likely" to you that Germany will invade France again? Given their history...
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There are some nations which have expressed regret over their past actions, and have changed their patterns of foreign policy. Germany, for example, is a nation that has changed more than night and day since the first half of the 20th century. The same with Japan, to a slightly lesser degree.
Other nations have expressed little to no regret, and even hold up their past to be emulated.
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Yeah, but Robertson doesn't speak for the government! If a prominent neo-Nazi in Germany suggested that we should kill the President of France, say, would you be worried that another blitzkreig is around the corner?
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Did that neo-Nazi almost become chancellor of Germany 15 years ago, have an audience of millions in a daily or weekly broadcast, get invited to the house of the head of state and government regularly, is a major fundraiser for the government's election efforts, and is generally a mover and shaker?
Why yes, that would worry me.
The thing is, neo-Nazis are villified in much of Germany. Much like the KKK is villified in much of the USA.
Pat Robertson isn't. People who think like him are not. Their money is welcomed. Their support is welcomed. Their opinions are valued.
This makes them extremely dangerous.
You may remember something that happened in the American Democratic party a while ago. The democrats looked at their rolls, and saw something they would not tolerate. A racist wing of the party remained, a legacy of the civil war in the south.
Thus was born the Dixiecrats, who formed a splinter party and won a number of states in a presidential election. The democratic party kicked out a large source of power and votes in the south, because they would not stand for it anymore.
There is something a moral person must do. Even if someone will call you ally, and offer to help you, a moral person must determine what it means to call a person friend.
Possibly the Republicans can show this fibre. But so long as they call Pat Robertson friend and accept his aid, I cannot believe he has no influence over the Republican party.
Draw a line. Show your fibre.
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How about the IRA bombing campaign in England, then, if you don't like those examples?
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The IRA bombing campaign in England was a resounding success!
Oh wait, it really wasn't. Northern Ireland is pretty much one of the most tightly held remnants of the UK's global empire, and is only now starting to be set free.
How many people did the IRA kill in England?
Ask the people of England if they will bow to terror.
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Research *chuckle*... MEGADEATHS! - in the Soviet Union and youo might have a better understanding of why we did what we did in Vietnam.
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You did it because you screwed up. You assumed that any two communists where allies, and that Vietnam would be an ally or puppet of this vast communist world-wide menace.
Vietnam was fighting a war against imperialist occupation. The USA came into this war on the French side of this colonial rebellion, and set up puppet governments to justify their intervention. Enough Vietnamese would rather die than live under occupation that the USA failed.
Most of the world figured this out, and stayed out of Vietnam.
The US blundered in, and megadeath resulted.