Replies

HughMungus,

The world isn't black and white, eh?

Perhaps not to US, but how about you ask our rabid little enemies, the sons of the Moon God?

According to them, the world is divided between believers and infidels, between the House of Islam and the House of War.
According to them, they are absolutely right, and we are absolutely wrong.
According to them, there is to be no peace until all of the people of the world submit to Allah and Sharia law.

In other words: Black and White.

None of this requires anything so esoteric as reading minds to learn - try simply reading the collected suriyah of the Koran and hadith of the Sunnah; try simply reading AlJazeera; try simply reading the (unfiltered, unspun) news of what they actually do, to be found outside of the usual alphabet-news channels.

For a struggle to become void of nuance, unsullied by gray areas, all that is required is for ONE SIDE of the conflict to see things in black and white absolutism.

They DO.
Thus, this war IS black and white. Cut and dried. Kill them or be killed by them.

All you or any other denizen of "the house of war" needs to understand is summed up in my tagline.

This is war is not about what we are fighting FOR - it is about what we are fighting AGAINST.

Get that through your thick, tiny, vacuum-containing skull.

Erm... that's like saying that it's still ok for a Christian to kill a heretic or jew, because they're damned to hell to begin with. Their extremists see things in black and white, but we don't exactly come from a religious background that lets us accuse another of being inherently violent, because ours is the only major one left that often says to go out an conquer. Oh, it says other more pleasant things, but so does the quoran, so who's counting?

As for your tagline... they only seemed to show interest in us when we got all in their affairs. We alienated Iran, alienated Palestine, and generally started taking sides and playing power games. Big deal, all the western powers did, it comes with the territory. They resent us the way every weaker country resents a foreign power muscling in on them. If we just left them alone, they would leave us alone. Problem is, if we just left them alone, everyone would accuse us of being selfish (oh joy), and we could easily end up with a much bigger threat down the line.

I'll agree with at least that one statement HM made... the world is not black and white, it's just easier for people to see it that way. Every single foreign issue we're dealing with right now is the direct result of past actions of ours. We can't just crush all opposition, because that usually causes more problems than it solves if not applied well (and it's usually not)... and we can't hand everybody the olive branch, because the world does not work that way except in a hippie fantasy.

If everything's black and white, then tell me why we're in Iraq in a simple plain non-jingoist answer. I know why I supported it and still do, and it has nothing to do with WMD's, a perceived threat, or any other excuse that was made... but you don't sound like you have a clear reason yourself.

"This is war is not about what we are fighting FOR - it is about what we are fighting AGAINST. "

What does this have to do with you going after people anonymously and your belief that anyone who disagrees with the current administration is somehow not a good soldier? If you were in the military when Clinton was in office and you expressed your disdain for him, could we assume that you are a malcontent and could not be trusted?

"Get that through your thick, tiny, vacuum-containing skull."

Attacking the person rather than his ideas is an indicator that you are in fear of losing your argument.