How to Kill Anti-American Threads on Free Republic

Me | Oct 6, 2001 | Anamensis

[Aurelius]

The failure of your analogy is that it applies to an immediate threat to an individual. If my life were being immediately threatened by a shark, or a person, I would not be endeavoring to understand why. Understanding is a luxury that can be afforded by those not in immediate peril.

[Aurelius]

"What made Hitler and his Nazis tick?"

There are plenty of books on the subject, would you advocate burning them? The Nazis were big on burning books, particularly those authored by Jews.

[FITZ]

I do think we're in immediate danger. I started thinking that on Sept 11. I agree in understanding the enemy only as part of the strategy in sizing it up so we know best how to destroy it, but later after we've destroyed it then we can write books and all that.

[Anamensis]

You make a good point; censorship is when the GOVERNMENT prohibits free speech. When the PEOPLE don't want to hear something, they are free to walk away and I don't see how anyone justifies arguing against that.

[Anamensis]

Shuckmaster? And who is...(drumroll)... shuckmaster?

[Anamensis]

Look at the context of this thread. The originator (Amenensis?) is talking about material that is so bad that it should be ignored and not responded to. In these cases, the abuse button is a good tool for removing both the offending material and the offender from FreeRepublic.

Thing is, I wasn't even advocating the Abuse button (in 2 years I've only used it 3 times.) I was advocating the Back button. As in "this thread is just some jag-off dissing my country. I'm going Back to Latest Posts and looking for something worth reading." But OH! The cries of "censorship, censorship!"...

[Anamensis]

Could it be that Saddam is selling out-of-country the food that is allowed into Iraq for the starving children under the sanctions regime, to buy arms

NO!?! No, Saddy (I call him "Saddy") would NEVER do that. Doze dirty Joos made dat up!!

[mercy]

Yes. That IS what I mean. Sometimes you seem like an ally and sometimes you seem like a twit and sometimes you seem like a full-on traitor. ARE you British?

[Anamensis]

In fact they seem unable to distinguish between "understanding" and "justifying".

If people are interested in understanding it, they are one step from justifying it. They hate us because of our freedom, and because we are good and they are evil. Destroy them, all of them, or they will be right back at us.

Let's compromise: destroy them... THEN understand them!

[Anamensis]

What made Hitler and his Nazis tick?

Breathing. Take that away, and voila! No more ticking! (-:

[DAnconia55]

Psst... can't be any traitors. No declared war.

[DAnconia55]

Go tell Saddam about it, tell him that he attacked a defenseless country,

...... with implied consent of the invasion from US Ambassador April Gillispe (I mangled the name, I know...) speaking on behalf of the US...

Things are not always as simple as they appear.

[DAnconia55]

The US should bury their heads in the sand, get out of every nation we are helping to feed, police and protect. Then we all should cross our fingers and hope that these regions conflicts dont spill over into our society. Lets ignore history, lets ignore the fact that both World Wars erupted in Europe

You are ignoring history. The truth of history is, political meddling and lack of respect for national soverigenty caused BOTH World Wars...

But hey, that's fine... don't learn. Clean up this mess, and cost us a few thousand American soldiers lives (to go with the few thousand civilians)... and then move on like the US has the right to play Risk on a global scale with the lives of millions.... And wait for the NEXT incident that blows up in your face.

Or... you could learn that what concerns us... is us, and nothing more...

[smith288]

U got me... My arguemnt is over because of my odd topic mistake

[sinkspur]

I understand why people react with hostility when someone else expresses a belief contradictory to their own. It is a common reaction, usually at least partly due to the individual's insecurity in his own belief. But hostility toward someone else's professed desire to understand something that you personally have no interest in understanding?

You post an opinion, then get your back up when someone questions your opinion? Why post if you expect no reaction? Just keep your opinion to yourself.

under*stand- transitive and intransitive verb grasp the meaning of something: to know or be able to explain to yourself the nature of somebody or something, or the meaning or cause of something I can't understand what all the fuss is about.

If you are struggling to "grasp the meaning" of the murder of 7000 people by crawling into the heads of terrorists, then you're on a fools errand.

Whether not McVeigh was guilty of involvement in the bombing, I have no idea; I simply don't believe the government proved it and I believe the defense was denied the opportunity to present a full defense on his behalf.

That's why we have jury trials; the justice system doesn't leave these decisions to keyboard jockeys who think they've "reviewed the details of the trial."

Why doesn't it surprise me that a defender of McVeigh would also seek to find some "understanding" in his heart for a Mohammed Atta?

[Torie]

Sometimes you seem like an ally and sometimes you seem like a twit and sometimes you seem like a full-on traitor.

Always keep em guessing.

ARE you British?

No.

[Mark17]

Well, I think there are others out there, as dangerous, if not more so. We surely need to keep our guard up. We may never be able to stop this completely, but I sure hope we can put a serious dent in it.

[klee]

It was not political meddling that resulted in both wars. In the first World war it was an assassination in the Balkins area which triggered the war. In WW2, it was the invasion of Poland.

The US did not get involved in WW2 for 2 years. Political meddling didnt result in Pearl Harbour either. Do try to get it right. The Americans lost thousands of lives before even being involved in the war. Whether you stand by and do nothing or you get involved, history has taught us we will always lose many lives.

It isnt I who hasnt learnt from history...

[Mark17]

Let's compromise: destroy them... THEN understand them!

LOL Thanks for adding a little humor at a terrible time in all our lives. Even in times like these, we sometimes need a little chuckle.

Regards.

[looky]

I may be jumping the gun, since the US has not (visibly) responded yet. But from past "conflicts" the US has led, many innocent people die (like in any war). However, this is a little different. Bombing Kabul won't kill a single enemy. Now, I don't want to seem like a make love-not war guy, but isn't it reasonable to assume that if our children suffered the same fate as kids in Afghanistan that are killed , we would retaliate at any cost and by any means ? I would be surprised if they didn't react the same way. Don't you realize that the bad guys in this case are a far more bloodthirsty enemy than we've ever faced ? When you're looking forward to dying, you are a far greater threat than a regular soldier. And the bad guys here want to die if it means victory. BTW-It irks me that when anyone posts any message or opinion regarding US policy or US strategy, they are branded anti-US. That is simply not correct.