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alleyoop
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Why are we at war?
« on: Oct 29th, 2004, 1:01pm » |
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Why we are at war. Some of you may not approve of the Iraqi war, and I
>hope
>this em ail doesn't offend anyone, but it's the BEST explanation for the
>war
>that I've ever read, and I feel I must pass it on . This is the BEST
>explanation of WHY we are AMERICA, the Home of the Brave and the Land of
>the FREE!
>
****************************************THE QUESTION OF WHY WE ARE AT WAR**********
>The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My
>husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in
>the
>Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our
>country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good
>explanation.
>My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in
>our front living room window. He told him:
>"Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"
>"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.
>"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United
>States of America and you are President Bush."
>Our son giggled and said "OK."
>"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house
>and
>yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.
>"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
>"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man
>come
>out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting
>her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws
>her on
>the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out
>and
>are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do
>nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of
>this
>son.... what do you do?"
>"Dad?"
>"What do you do son?"
>"I call the police, Dad."
>"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your
>call,
>listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do
>then
>son?" "Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.
>"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or
>your
>place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband
>says.
>
>"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.
>"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you
>to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're
>pretending
>is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."
>"Daddy...he kills them?"
>"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"
>"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door
>neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.
>"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get
>involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my
>husband
>says.
>"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"
>"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry. "OK, no one wants to help
>you,
>the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would
>help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he
>does
>next son?"
>"What Daddy?"
>"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her
>door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire
>and
>then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window
>and
>laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
>"Daddy..."
>"WHAT DO YOU DO?"
>Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds,
>Daddy." My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him...
>"Why?" "Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who
>needs
>it....and they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed
>to
>HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop
>him...I'm
>afraid....I can't do it by myself .Daddy.....I can't look out my window
>and
>just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do
>nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds....so I can't see what
>he's doing........and
>I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."
>I start to cry.
(continued)
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alleyoop
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #1 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 1:02pm » |
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My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking
>pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells
>him...."Son?"
>"Yes, Daddy."
>"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door..."WHAT DO
>YOU DO?"
>My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up
>his
>tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he
>says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY
>SISTER,
>DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"
>I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest
>and hugs him tight, and cries..."It's too late to fight him, he's too
>strong
>and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him
>BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have
>to do it
>alone, before......it's too late." my husband whispers. THAT scenario I
>just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and
>let
>evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is
>right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of
>humanity. WE must remove evil men from power so that we can continue to
>live in a
>free world where we are not afraid to look out our window. So that my
>nine
>year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just
>"closes"
>that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him. "YOU MUST
>NEVER
>BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD
>TO
>BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!!
>SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL
>NEVER
>HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."
>"The liberty we prize is not American's gift to the world, it is God's gift
>to humanity." George W. Bush
"As soon as we think with integrity we will realize that we are all properly stewards and that we cannot with integrity deny our responsibility for stewardship of every part of the whole." M. Scott Peck, M.D.
......................alley
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JDH
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #3 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 1:12pm » |
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So what about N Korea, Iran, Sudan etc...do we take on the whole world? 
Jim
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notseinfeld
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #4 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 1:14pm » |
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gheesh Alley, I got caught off guard and actually choked up. Thanks for the post!
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ExplodingEyeBall
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #5 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 1:51pm » |
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Wow!!! That was a great post.
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BarbaraD
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #6 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 2:38pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 1:12pm, JDH wrote:So what about N Korea, Iran, Sudan etc...do we take on the whole world?
Jim |
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And where are we going to get the troops to take on the whole world as it looks like we're about to do? Who's going to defend OUR country? We've got people in THIS country going to bed hungry, who can't buy medicine and need AID. Why are our tax dollars going to help people who've had 2000 years or more to defend themselves.
My daddy always said, "The Good Lord helps them what helps themselves."
Nice story but I still can't see one American life being wasted in Iraq.
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JDH
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #7 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 2:50pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 2:38pm, BarbaraD wrote:
And where are we going to get the troops to take on the whole world as it looks like we're about to do? |
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Can you say "reinstate the draft"?
Quote:| Who's going to defend OUR country? |
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Certainly not the National Guard...they're all in Iraq.
Quote:| We've got people in THIS country going to bed hungry, who can't buy medicine and need AID. Why are our tax dollars going to help people who've had 2000 years or more to defend themselves. |
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Well said Barb.
Quote:| My daddy always said, "The Good Lord helps them what helps themselves." |
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Amen
Quote:| Nice story but I still can't see one American life being wasted in Iraq. |
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once again, Amen.
Jim
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9-11-01, to remember is to honor.
It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.
ECH established 1985
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vig
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #8 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:00pm » |
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It IS a great story, but it DOESN'T answer why are we at war THIS time.
"WE must remove evil men from power so that we can continue to live in a free world."
It's a great thought, but it's NOT our policy to do this.
We have NO intention of going into North Korea, CHina, CHeCHnya or ANYWHERE else.
I believe we were correct to go to Yugoslavia and Kosovo to HELP remove Slobodan Mlosevic, but we didn't START that, we assisted and had global support. We didn't this time and we made more enemies than friends in the process.
We learned, in general, in Somalia, that this can be a terrible practice and until we are appointed the world's policeman, we stand by.
Heck, using this analogy, I could say that we don't even food, clothe, protect, and educate our OWN kids first.
We WERE attacked by Al Qaeda. We did NOT capture Osama Bin Laden. A link between Al Qaeda and Iraq WAS inferred by the Bush administration several times. Statements WERE made by the Bush administration that Weapons of Mass Destruction were NOT alleged, but FACTS (yes, Colin Powell probably regrets making that statement) All of the arguments for entering Iraq are still specious at best and the cost is turning out to be humongous; in lives AND dollars.
my $.02
alright, back to my corner
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JJA
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #9 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:06pm » |
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Now son, imagine that neighbor has a garage full of oil...
Sorry, I had to say it.
Jesse
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floridian
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>> Daddy, why did you get so angry when Mr. Afghanistan mistreated his wife and
>> daughters, but when Mr. Saudi does the same thing, you just look the other way??
Kids say the darndest things. 
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Hirvimaki
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #11 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:25pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 3:06pm, JJA wrote:| Now son, imagine that neighbor has a garage full of oil... |
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You may have come close to answering the the question as to why the we at war in Iraq and not " N Korea, Iran, Sudan etc." Most governments in the Middle East are illegitimate or only somewhat liberalized. (The exceptions are Israel and Turkey, which count as free countries - though Turkey barely squeaks in: Freedom House rates it only "partly free," albeit improving.) True, there are other countries which have equally illegitimate governments, but the Middle East is of vital interest because it stands astride the bulk of world oil reserves. So two overriding principles must shape our policy there. The first is to see our free allies secure. The second is to ensure the freedom of the oil trade on which the industrial economies depend. If you really think that is an amoral or dishonest reason for us to be there, you don't understand the world and our place in it. Defending commerce is not a dishonorable cause, as some people claim. Material goods are the soil in which our lives and our achievements must grow. These are both idealistic-yet practical-moral principles: each upholds the international society of political and economic freedom that best serves our interests in the long run.
Hirvimaki-Isi
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JJA
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #12 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:41pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 3:25pm, Hirvimaki wrote:
The second is to ensure the freedom of the oil trade on which the industrial economies depend. |
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Fair enough. Why won't Bush say that?
Jesse
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M
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #13 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:52pm » |
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That original post was an excellent explanation. In fact, I think it is the best explanation of why we are at war. I really like the idea of explaining international relations in terms of a neighborhood (I have a degree in international business and speak six languages - I try to read or watch the news in Engligh, Dutch, German, and Spanish).
Interestingly, your husbands metaphor of neighbors is exactly why I think that going to war was such a bad idea. I think that your husband's metaphor, however, gives us a good vehicle to talk about this whole thing.
>"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your
>call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help.
Actually, the U.N. did not refuse to help. They were working on Sadam and making good progress. You saw this in news all over the world except for U.S. news (I know because I was traveling back and forth from the U.S. at the time - you saw only a portion of the facts on U.S. news). You see, weapons inspectors had secured approximately 90% of the weapons in Iraq. In late 2002, Hans Blix and other inspectors including Americans said that they were still making progress. Blix supported the U.S. use of a military threat because he thought it helped put needed pressure on Sadam. But Blix did not see a need for a full scale invasion. He and most of the rest of the world agreed that it would be counter-productive.
To use the metaphor, there were already several neighbors in the troublemakers house figuring out how to deal with the problem and making progress. Things were not perfect, but things were improving, and there was no imminent threat from that neighbor. His next door neighbors were certainly not complaining - not even his arch enemy who lived two houses down.
It's strange, when you explain that we didn't need to invade, some people respond, "What are we supposed to do? Nothing?"
The choice was not between war and nothing. When is that ever the only two choices? There were MORE than just two choices. Doing nothing was not a good choice, I agree. But going to war was one of the worst choices. That is what our neighbors were trying to tell us 18 months ago. Instead of listening with reason, we called them cowards.
Also, the U.N. is not like the police. There are 192 countries in the world, of which 191 participate in the U.N. (The only country who is not a member is Vatican City.) The U.N. is like a neighborhood association, not the police.
If you tell your son that the U.N. is the police of the world, then you do not understand how the U.N. works. The U.N. has no official authority over any country, any more than your neighborhood association can tell you how to run your household.
The U.N. is just a bunch of countries communicating and making treaties with each other in order to coexist peacefully and protect the neighborhood; just like a neighborhood association. The U.S. helped to create the U.N. after WWII. We created the U.N. because we didn't want to see another Nazi-like invasion of Poland or another Pearl Harbor. Those were preemptive attacks. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because Japan's politicians convinced the military that the U.S. was getting ready to attack Japan. Same thing in Germany - the people in Germany were united by politicians who told them that they were under imminent threat from communist terrorists, and that Poland was attacking. (I know this from personal interviews with friends in Germany, but lots of history books explain the same thing.)
>"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get
>involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my
>husband says.
Okay, good point. You see this neighbor (who by the way is not across the street, but more like four blocks down) torturing people in their own household. You ask neighbors to go in and intervene with violence. They say that they are not prepared to go in with violence. Your neighbors (allies) explain that they live closer to the guy (right next to him in some cases) and that there are other solutions. Your neighbors explain to you that it is not a good idea to go invade this guy yet.
Why do they refuse? Are their blinds drawn even though they live closer to the guy? Or, do they know something that you ought to listen to?
You see, all your neighbors know, and have told you, that about one third of the people in that house don't want you to come in. Your neighbors know that we will not be welcomed as liberators, but rather seen as invaders. Lots of people in that house don't want to be 'rescued.' You will create more violence in the neighborhood by 'rescuing' those people. In fact, if you go into that house with violence, one third of people in that house will fight you to the death.
Furthermore, if you go into that house to 'save' the people in it, you will kill a lot of the people that you say you are trying to help. You will kill innocent people (about 13,000 in Iraq as of Aug.2003, including women and children). To make things worse, when you kill those innocent people in that house, the other family members who used to like you will now turn against you because you killed their innocent brothers and sisters.
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| « Last Edit: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:05pm by M » |
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M
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #14 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:53pm » |
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[continued from previous post ....]
>NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD
>TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!!
>SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL
>NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."
Also, remember that in our little neighborhood, the U.S. is the dominant miltary force. According to the Department of Defense, we have military bases in 140 countries. Our defense budget is more like an offense budget: we spend as much as the next 27 countries combined.
I too wish Americans would open their blinds. If more Americans opened their blinds it would be obvious that attacking Iraq in Spring of 2003 was about the worst thing we could have done for Americans, Iraqis, and the rest of the world. There is one group, however, that did benefit by our invasion: the extremist Islamic fundamentalists. Our invasion has pushed away the moderate Muslims who were on our side after 9/11, and given the extremists more fuel for their cause.
Instead of chanting "Go America Go!" maybe we should look at facts, and make decisions based on reason, not nationalistic jingoism or pride. Excessive national pride led to a lot of pain in the twentieth century.
> When good men stand by and
>let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all
I completely agree with you. And I think that killing innocent people is not the best way to confront evil. There were other more effective solutions in Iraq that did not require war. But Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz were not interested. Back in 1988, they wrote a letter to Clinton asking him to attack Iraq, which had nothing to do with terrorism or WMDs. (See Rumsfeld's own web site: www.newamericancentury.org.) And Wolfowitz has been advocating attacking Iraq since the mid 1980's.
I believe that your husband is honorable and has good intentions. My friends, we have been duped. Our good intentions and our desire to protect our country are NOT why we are at war. For all of our sakes, please do your homework, and make your voice heard.
I know that it is a tough problem. The neighborhood metaphor is a really good start for rational discussion. And perhaps we can remember the admonition from the Bible, "Thou shalt not side with the powerful against the helpless." I think that we are both saying the same thing. We just need to get the facts straight. Okay, I think I need to lay down now before I get a headache.  -M
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| « Last Edit: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:54pm by M » |
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nani
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #15 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 3:54pm » |
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Quote:| ensure the freedom of the oil trade on which the industrial economies depend |
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We only continue to depend on oil because the oil industry has insured that there is no research into viable and renewable alternatives. Another case of the few getting rich on the backs of the many. (...and that includes us as the biggest consumers of oil in the world.)What will happen to the Middle East when we've used up all the oil? I have a feeling no one will give a rat's ass then.
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IndianaJohn
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #16 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:01pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 3:25pm, Hirvimaki wrote:
The second is to ensure the freedom of the oil trade on which the industrial economies depend.
Hirvimaki-Isi |
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True. Free trade and commerce have been the cause of war before. But what was the threat prior to this one. Iraqs military was crippled. Saddam Hussein didn't control 2/3 of his own country. This war was on the Bush agenda before he took office. And now our young men and women are dying. For what? To ensure the global oil supply? It wasn't threatened before we invaded. This war was ill advised and unwarranted. Now our military is stretched so thin that if Iran or North Korea decide to start making trouble (the countries that have or are developing nuclear weapons), we will be ill prepared to deal with them.
Just my
John
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Hirvimaki
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #17 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:13pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 3:41pm, JJA wrote:
Hmmm... asking me to crawl inside the head of a Republican is like asking me to crawl inside the head of a Democrat. Ideologically I am pretty far removed from both parties. But at the core, isn't every politician just that, a politician? I'd say it is political expediency to not say what people just don't want to hear.
Hirvimaki-Isi
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don
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When did we become the world Police?
Hitler tried that. Didn't work out so well.
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JJA
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #20 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:20pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 4:13pm, Hirvimaki wrote:| I'd say it is political expediency to not say what people just don't want to hear. |
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Then would you say he's lying about why we are in Iraq or just not telling the whole truth? People are fighting and dying based on what Bush says.
Jesse
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M
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #21 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:48pm » |
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 4:18pm, Jeepgun wrote:
Hey Jeepgun, thanks for jumping in. You provided a link to CNN's page titled, "Day of Terror Video Archive." Lots of stuff there about 9/11 terrorists who attacked us.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, 26 al-Qaida terrorist conspirators sought to enter the United States to carry out a suicide mission. In the end, there were 19 hijackers in all. 15 came from Saudi Arabia. The remaining four came from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, this distribution reflected the proportions of trainees at al-Qaida camps. They were also chosen because they could easily obtain U.S. visas for Saudi citizens.
0 from Iraq. That's zero terrorists from Iraq.
Again, you brought up 9/11, and I am so glad because you must know this fact. The terrorist attack itself was planned by Khalid Sheik Mohammed and approved by Osama bin Laden, a Kuwaiti and a Saudi living in Afghanistan.
0 terrorist organizers from Iraq. That's zero terrorists organizers from Iraq.
In fact the terrorist organizers viewed Sadam as an enemy. Thank you for bringing up the facts that show that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, which means that attacking Iraq was a distraction from fighting the terrorist organization behind 9/11.
Thank you Jeepgun for making the point that Iraq was a mistake.
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| « Last Edit: Oct 29th, 2004, 4:56pm by M » |
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Mark C
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Re: Why are we at war?
« Reply #22 on: Oct 29th, 2004, 5:03pm » |
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Quote:| Bin Laden directly admitted for the first time that he carried out the Sept. 11th attacks and promised to outline "the best way to avoid another Manhattan." |
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Quote:| "We decided to destroy towers in America," bin Laden said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center |
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Osama Bin Laden....
Look here.
Quote:“All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration
of war on God, his Messenger, and Muslims. . . . [T]he jihad is an individual
duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. . . . As for the fighting to
repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is
a duty. . . . On that basis, and in compliance with God’s order, we issue the
following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their
allies—civilian and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can
do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.”
— Osama bin Laden et al., in “Declaration of
the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against
the Jews and Crusaders,” 23 February 1998 |
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The 1,300-Year Battle between Christians and Muslims
Evil does exist in this world.
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floridian
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 3:25pm, Hirvimaki wrote:
Defending commerce is not a dishonorable cause, as some people claim. Material goods are the soil in which our lives and our achievements must grow. These are both idealistic-yet practical-moral principles: each upholds the international society of political and economic freedom that best serves our interests in the long run.
Hirvimaki-Isi |
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You are assuming that commerce is good. Commerce is merely activity. Some activity is good because it does supply the materials goods we need to live, or otherwise improves our lives. Other commercial activity is destructive or enslaving. You said you only consider two countries in the Middle East as free (Israel and Turkey). Trading with the monarchs and dictators who had enough guns to secure the oil supplies in the other Middle East countries perpetuates their hold over the peoples there. Is that good?
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Melissa
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on Oct 29th, 2004, 4:18pm, don wrote:When did we become the world Police?
Hitler tried that. Didn't work out so well. |
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Now Don, the police (especially in America) are there to protect EVERYONE. Hitler was NOT a policeman, he was extremely prejudice about who should live or die. Anyway, read this:
Quote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
Godwin's Law (also Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is an adage in Internet culture that was originated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states that:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. There is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. In addition, whoever points out that Godwin's Law applies to the thread is also considered to have "lost" the battle, as it is considered poor form to invoke the law explicitly. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. Many people understand Godwin's Law to mean this, although (as is clear from the statement of the law above) this is not the original formulation.
Nevertheless, there is also a widely-recognized codicil that any intentional invocation of Godwin's Law for its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
Godwin's Law is named after Mike Godwin, who was legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the early 1990s, when the law was first popularized. Richard Sexton maintains that the law is a formalization of his October 16, 1989 post
You can tell when a USENET discussion is getting old when one of the participents (sic) drags out Hitler and the Nazis. Strictly speaking, however, this is not so, since the actual text of Godwin's Law does not state that such a reference or comparison makes a discussion "old," or, for that matter, that such a reference or comparison means that a discussion is over.
Finding the meme of Nazi comparisons on Usenet illogical and offensive, Godwin established the law as a counter-meme. The law's memetic function is not to end discussions (or even to classify them as "old" ), but to make participants in a discussion more aware of whether a comparison to Nazis or Hitler is appropriate, or is simply a rhetorical overreach.
Many people have extended Godwin's Law to imply that the invoking of the Nazis as a debating tactic (in any argument not directly related to World War II or the Holocaust) automatically loses the argument, simply because these events were so horrible that any comparison to any event less serious than genocide or extinction is invalid and in poor taste. |
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| « Last Edit: Oct 29th, 2004, 7:23pm by Melissa » |
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