I appreciate your comments here Ed, and accept your apology. While I can't agree with you in some of what you say in your post, I find I react much more positively to a civil discussion of the way you see things.
I think the bottom line here is: Do you believe that the terrorists when their leaders say they intend to try to destroy our way of life, or don't you? You is the universal you, here...not just 'you'.
If one doesn't believe them, and doesn't want to see what they are doing on a daily basis, then I guess one just goes on as one did on 9-10, not seeing, not reading, not hearing anything much around them. Certainly not heeding events like WTCI, the Embassies being bombed, the USS Cole, the Marines' quarters being bombed, and all the other events that took place pre 9-11.
If on the other hand, one does believe that they, in fact, intend to destroy our civilization, then one has to be alert and heed what we are seeing and hearing all around us.
As I said, I am not in the group that think that the situation will change overnight, nor in a year or two.
Sometimes, I feel like you do. Why are we doing this? We could just go home, and pull the blankets over our heads and pretend nothing is happening around us, and that all is well.
In one paragraph, you seem concerned that our leaders aren't sending their children to war. Do they have any children that are of age to go to war? Do you think you should send the Bush daughters to war? Who exactly do you think isn't going that should be going?
In this statement, you said: "No, it's not training they need, its a cause worth dying for."
Ahhhh, that is the nub, isn't it? While I do think thay need more training than a few months, I do think that most of the folks in Iraq, have had to live under a dictatorship worse than anything most of the citizens of Western Civilization can imagine. They lived under a brutal dictatorship for more than 30 years. One entire generation plus some grew up seeing their relatives killed, murdered, and/or disappeared. They grew up in a constant threat of terror.
How can we expect they, as a group, immediately know they want freedom and deserve it? Rather than understanding freedom "is a cause worth dying for", they are used to hiding, and getting out of harm's way if possible. It was the way they survived.
BTW, speaking of "freedom is a cause worth dying for..." do you think it is? I know you have been in the Military, and I certainly do think you would have an opinion about that. I'm not so sure that many of our own citizens fully understand and are willing to act on that understanding.
Many people in the US even today, after 9-11, want to continue hiding their heads in the sand, and pretend all is well, and that nothing happened.
And as far as your statement: " All of us have inborn tribal instincts that do not allow the men of the tribe to tolerate strange men who come to rule. It is that way in small groups and it's that way in large ones. If you don't believe me then think about how you'd feel if the situation was reversed and foreign men with guns had power over you, your woman, your property, your movements, your freedom and your life. Do you feel the heat? Ed "
I agree with the premise. However, in WWII, I wonder if the "little people" in Germany, or France, or England, or Europe felt that way when Americans came to help them (and ourselves) rid the world of a terrible threat..... I wonder if most of the "little people" in the Pacific felt that way when America came to help them rid the world of another terrible threat??? I don't think Roosevelt or Truman, or any of the Congress at the time had children who were in the service (did they???)
WWII cost America hundreds of thousands of our own citizens lives. It cost America billions of dollars, in a day when a million was a good deal of money. We didn't want to enter the war in Europe. We didn't believe that Japan would hit us. But Japan did.
We woke up as a Country. We FINALLY understood what was at stake. We not only help rid the world of the terrible threat, we helped to rebuild Europe and Japan. And we didn't occupy those places any longer than necessary.
As for me, 9-11 woke me up. |
