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Last night I just skimmed over your parallel between Japan and Afghanistan, and have thought since then about the flaws in the comparison. Japan was a homogenous, Imperialist empire whose people were prepared to die to the last man, woman and child should we invade their country. The planned military invasion never took place because of the probable loss of thousands upon thousands of lives, both American and Japanese, and the reason we bombed them was actually to save lives.

In Afghanistan, the very diverse tribal people were being ruled by a brutal regime, and we worked alongside the Northern Alliance and other Afghan people to rid that country of its tyranny. We did invade, though massive groundtroops were not necessary, and very few lives were lost. Very, very different from Japan.

Each enemy country in our history has been dealt with in a different way because each of them is a different situation which requires a different solution.

We won't ever agree here, econ, not because one of us is naive, or either of us is a fool, but because we see the world through different eyes. You, and many others on this thread see it in dollars and cents, through the prism of the wallet in your own back pocket, and I see it through the Biblical worldview that each person on earth has been made in God's image, and therefore is deserving of the respect and help from the most powerful, wealthy, benign country on earth. Our poorest poor is richer than the middle class in almost every other country on earth.

As a conservative (and I AM a fiscal conservative), I am not talking about throwing money at people or governments in reckless foreign aid, as we have done so often in the past. I think we should completely deny any financial aid to any country (i.e. France and Germany) who oppose us.

BUT........what we are talking about in this particular spending request, is money for the freedom of people who have been brutalized, the stabilization of their countries, and yes, the safety and protection of the American people.

Thanks for the good conversation, econ. Perhaps we can meet sometime on a thread in which we agree. I have the sense that we agree on quite a few things.