Oh Really? Reality is Perception [First in a Series]

"Because of the sacr (0.00 / 0)

"Because of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, two terror regimes are gone forever, freedom is on the march, and America is more secure." One could of course write many a book about this one sentence, but just a few comments. Afganistan - The Taliban are on the defensive in that country, but what has it been replaced by? I read in Time magazine earlier this week that, what was it, 86% of the world's opium now comes from that country - and I read somewhere else that American troops have been ordered to not to interfere with the crops or trade. (Bush is commander and cheif and "fit for command".) Okay, so how many millions of lives are being destroyed by opium? Is that not terrifying? Not as long as it is "other people's family" I guess. Well,Clinton was apparently supported by big drug dealers, and Bush seems to be supporting drug trafficing, but I don't support it. And, in general, I don't think our men and women in uniform support drug trafficing or the terror and destruction it creates. Replacing the Tailban with druglords that constantly attack our world might be a good tradeoff, but perhaps not. Iraq. Okay. How many people died in the World Trade Center attacks? The number kept silently coming down. Let's say 3,500. And then instead of invading a country that is working on making weapons of mass destruction, such as Iran or North Korea, we invade one that isn't working on them and doesn't have any. If we really thought they had some, would we have massed all of our troops in one spot prior to attack where they could have all been wiped out by one WMD? And is is coincidental that the only infrastructure in the country that we protected was the income oil producing infrastructure. And is it coincidental the oil revenue goes to American companies, that Cheny's company, Halliburton, got the largest contract without bidding for it and the Pentagon claimed that they had nothing to do with awarding that contract when they were critizied? But that's all another subject. Over 100,000 Iraqis have died, and most (all?) in terrifying circumstances. (It's kinda hard to not get killed in a war in a non-scary way.) I call that terror, particulary considering that Bush said the Iraqis would shower our people with flowers, that the mission had been accomplished, and in the end,there were no WMDs, we elimated an ally against Iran, and we tied down most of our troops so that they can't deal with Iran or North Korea, who happily continue to work on their nukes. Iraq still sounds terrifying to me, it is not more secure, it is less secure, it is not free, and I don't feel more secure having our troops tied down in Vietnam II. But let's look at it from perhaps a radical muslim vs. a radical Republican perspective. They killed 3,500 of us in NYC. We killed 100,000 Iraqis. The proportion here is approxomatly 28 to one. So to get the proportions out of whack, that far the other way, they would have to kill 2.8 million Americans and destroy our nation's infrastructre, and base such destruction on something like "the U.S. has Weapon's of Mass Destruction" - which we do. And after they did that, how do you think the average radical republican would react to some muslim radical then stating the that "a terror regime has been dealt a devestating blow, Isam is on the march, and Islam in now more secure"? And would such reations bouncing back and forth between America and a nuclear armed Islam make us more secure? Do Bush's words make us more secure or do they simply tell red state Americans what they want to hear and inflame Muslims that much more? I don't know, but I can guess.

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by: RJ @ Fri Jun 03, 2005 at 01:54:42 AM UTC

Where did you encoun (0.00 / 0)

Where did you encounter this quote--just curious. It's certainly a myth, going back a long way. Somehow seems to me we wouldn't have land that goes sea to shining sea if we weren't very willing warriors from the get-go. But we tell ourselves and one another lies to make our dastardliness into something loving. It's nuts. Meg

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by: Meg @ Fri Jun 03, 2005 at 03:58:25 AM UTC

Even when I thought (0.00 / 0)

Even when I thought there were WMDs I would not have sent my own kids, so I could not condone sending anyone else's either. My views have not changed. But there are those for whom the benefits outweigh the costs, even some apparently, who have paid the dearest cost imaginable, tough I wonder if they are capable of a fir accounting due to circumstance. I believe it will be many years before they know the true costs and benefits and those who have declared victory of any sort may yet have to reassess.

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by: Mark Thoma @ Fri Jun 03, 2005 at 09:35:02 AM UTC