Moenmac, you've expressed heartfelt emotions and voiced admirable concepts. You reach too far, however, when you state that you basically need to argue with "people like [me]" concerning your belief that; "... the people of the ME have the ability to understand that all people deserve to participate in free societies and to be protected by the laws of human rights as laid down by civilized nations.
My value system and view of the world are such that I'd like those things for the people of the world, all of the people, just as you do. The question with respect to the war in Iraq, however, is not whether we can find lofty humanistic rationales to explain it, even if those rationales are the reason for the war, the questions are much more complex. Here are a few:
* Can a foreign nation fight and win the battle for enlightenment and a better life for the citizens of another nation or must those people change from within and fight for their own freedom and liberty?
* Can a nation of people who are intolerant of other religions, culturally inclined to oppress women and convinced that their ways are sanctioned by their God, function as a democratic majority that protects the rights of women and minorities?
* Can you "encourage and promote" change in the culture of another nation by occupying that nation and using force of arms to effect that change?
* If you enter another country to "help" that country and the people opposing your "help" are generally willing to fight and die for their views while the people endorsing your "help" are generally not, what does that tell you about the likelihood of success?
* Should you look at history to find answers to such questions?
Emotions cannot dictate our actions, especially when we're sending young men and women to kill and die. The difference between what you refer to as people like "you," and people like "me" may be that I look at the doability of the thing before I get swept up in the desirability of it. It would be fine if the only basis for our disagreement on Iraq was that some of us were uncaring and unwilling to sacrifice because that would assume that success was within our reach. Unfortunately the actual basis for our disagreement is that some of us understand the limits of power and some of us will have to learn them. In the meantime our soldiers in Iraq will pay the cost. Ed |
