Hi zofsilence, thx for your perspective. Sure, disagreements on these threads are par for the course. Most people who post are fairly passionate one way or another, because they use these threads as an outlet for their frustrations, since we live in a society that makes true out and out debate politically incorrect.
So to a certain extent, I do sympathize and even support John's right to post his exact thought on these threads, even if they do include insults. I have done the same thing in my own way. For instance, something that has me completely inflamed is the way the whole world defends Muslims, just because Islam is a religion. Yet, all the evidence points to Islam being a complete bankrupt religion and the culture of Muslims in the Middle East to be one of the most dangerous, backward, bankrupt, racist, oppressive, disgusting cultures I've ever seen. And I wouldn't care, except that they are now exporting that culture to all of Europe and their hatred has turned into violence against Americans and innocents the world over. What frustrates me to no end, is that most people don't see that. Most people defend Muslims, because we Americans and Europeans were brought up to be politically correct and to respect other people's right to religion.
So yes, I understand being passionate about a cause or being passionate against a cause that everyone else seems blindly to follow. Iraq does seem like a smaller-scale Vietnam to me. However, what if Iraq bucks the odds and manages to become a Democracy? Will it have been worth it then? 10 or 15 years from now, if that were to happen, we might all be erecting monuments to all the Americans who fell in Iraq as heros that fought for the worthiest of causes, to bring freedom to a people who have never known it and to start the dominos falling in the Middle East, so that democracy can flourish across a culture that has never known it. And so that ultimately, the oppression that has not only allowed, but encouraged, the culture of hatred to exist in the Middle East, would be lifted and their people be allowed to get educated and to squash a hatred of all things Western or Jewish.
So, maybe John doesn't believe in the cause, but many Americans do. In my case, the only thing that makes me think we're throwing away American lives uselessly is that Rumsfeld and Bush are so inadequate for the task. I view them both as failures. It was a good vision, but the execution has been piss poor right from the start. Bush Sr. or McCain would have done better by enlisting the world to help us and by exhausting all diplomatic angles prior to commiting American lives. |
