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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SARMAN who wrote (271931)	12/10/2009 1:07:48 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I am not talking here about as American people, I am talking about our government. Well, our "government" didn't just put itself in power. The American people elected them. Does that mean there aren't special interests influencing our government? No. But we still have the option of kicking them out every 2, 4, and 6 years if we're not happy. I believe a chunk of my property tax pays for the police and fire department. And maybe some unknown power might want to grab your property and build something else on it. So it's in the interest NOT to permit the fire dept to save your home. And these police and firemen?? They get paid regardless. No.. what motivates them to keep your life and property safeguarded is the community accountability, and primarily the fear of the media taking pictures of them not doing their jobs. But additionally, most of them take their service to the community seriously. And many communities have volunteer, or reserve, police and firemen, who are not paid full time. They do it because they care and they like helping people. You need to differentiate between humanitarian and military. No I don't. Because I've actually served on Military humanitarian missions where we built schools and roads in Central American countries. It derived a LOT of goodwill, and let people in these countries form lasting memories of the GOOD THINGS that American soldiers do. Additionally, it was great training for our soldiers, and gave them the opportunity to actually do something positive in helping others. Most soldiers would rather spend their time helping other people rather than learning to wage war. There is certainly less danger involved and absolutely no animosity from the local population. They love us when we do something their own government can't bring itself to accomplish. As I stated above you can't equate charity with a military operation. Oh.. yes I can. Because a lot of what our soldiers are doing RIGHT NOW in Afghanistan has a humanitarian angle to it. We have PRTs and Civil Affairs units working with the locals building infrastructure that benefits the society at large. It's not all about killing Taliban and it shouldn't be. We have to given the Afghan people a "hand up", not just a hand out, so they can eventually take care of their own security. Hawk