Posted on 11/02/2001 11:59:31 AM PST by Starmaker
This question will be construed by many to be unpatriotic, un-American, and simply uncalled for. Many will scoff at the idea that such a question should even be addressed, but I believe it is one that we should ponder. Why? Because we are currently attacking another nation for carrying out acts of mass destruction that pale in comparison to what we ourselves have done.
Before I'm tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail, let me just say that I support the idea of a legitimate, just, and, yes, even moral war. I believe such a war can and should be declared when the security of the citizens of the United States is directly at risk. After all, the primary job of the federal government, contrary to the modern teachings of liberal and neo-conservative collectivists, is to provide for the common defense of the nation. If the security, liberty, and lives of its citizens are threatened, the government has a sworn duty to eliminate that threat.
Unfortunately, most of the conflicts we have seen in the last century were the result of the federal government ignoring its obligation to the immediate defense of our own nation in order to pursue more global concerns. Can anyone make the case that the conflicts we saw in places like Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia had anything to do with protecting the freedom of American citizens?
Now, the same people who were so quick to send soldiers off to kill and die for democracy overseas while ignoring the government's assaults on our liberty here at home are calling for unity in battling yet another foreign enemy. Perhaps our current predicament calls for some serious self-examination.
In our nationalistic frenzy we have been so intent on rooting out evil overseas that we have failed to notice the sins of our own nation. Again, I ask, what separates the U.S. from the terrorist nations of the world?
Many would say that we have a much greater respect for life and would never consider unleashing the kinds of atrocities we saw on September 11. Attacking innocent civilians with such cold-blooded calculation is beyond our comprehension. This kind of thinking lends credence to the old adage "ignorance is bliss."
During the last "just" war, World War II, the U.S. made it standard military procedure to specifically target civilians. German cities like Hamburg and Dresden were subjected to some of the most intense bombing raids in history. Even Japanese non-combatants in Tokyo could not escape the relentless firebombing. This policy of attacking civilian targets culminated in President Truman's order to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The result of these kinds of attacks throughout the war was a civilian death toll that climbed into the hundreds of thousands. Our government deliberately utilized this kind of warfare in order to strike terror in the hearts of foreign civilians. Sound familiar?
Needless to say, we do not have to look outside our borders for examples of the very evil we claim to loathe. Case in point, abortion. Since the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1973, we have witnessed the government-sanctioned murder of over 40 million innocent children. This is an accomplishment that even the worst terrorist nations cannot claim. Why have we failed to unite against this particular evil?
It is understandable that Americans continue to feel outraged by the attacks of September 11. The media guaranteed that all of us had a front row seat to the grim scenes of death and destruction. We could not escape the gruesome images of commercial airliners slamming into skyscrapers, people hurling themselves out of windows to avoid being burned alive, or a million tons of steel and concrete raining down upon victims and rescuers.
Think of the collective outrage that would ensue if we were granted the same kind access to the carnage inside an abortion clinic. Imagine if we were to catch a glimpse of the bloody, twisted heaps of mangled limbs, see babies survive an abortion long enough to be tossed out alive with the rest of the medical waste, or hear the screams of mothers realizing, too late, the devastating consequences of their actions.
Are all these innocent lives worth it? Should we applaud the deliberate killing of over 200,000 Japanese civilians by our atomic bombs because it ended World War II a few weeks ahead of schedule? Are we to just accept the murder of 1.5 million children every year because of our distorted view of individual liberty and personal choice? Do we continue to tolerate the actions of a government that believes it has more important things to do than protect the rights of the innocent?
Foreign civilians, unborn children, national integrity— evidently, these are the sacrifices with which we are willing to live. Such a thing is to be expected when a society adopts an "end justifies the means" philosophy. In doing so, we have only succeeded in demonstrating that we are just as capable as any terrorist nation of committing acts of senseless violence with little or no regard for the sanctity of human life.
So, just what exactly is it that separates the United States from the terrorist nations of the world? Maybe the answer is more elusive than we care to admit.
He's a Buchanan guy. Enough said?
Rosie the Riveter was imporant to win WW II. Since WW II there are no 'innocent civilians'. Get over it cry babies. Bomb what we must and expect the same. Forget the name blame game, we are all in this together. Get bin Laden, then over and out for good of other people's wars. George Washington was right.
This is your garbage, isn't it?
You don't have the guts to post it yourself?
It's drivel, and your continued attempt at moral equivalence (in this article, you say we're WORSE than the terrorists) between America and radical Islamists is disgusting.
You're not with us, Lee. You're with the terrorists.
What a laugh you've become!
Isalmist terrorists drum up any excuse (bin Laden's made Kashmir part of his jihad now) to destroy what they don't like. Our "deeds" have very little to do with it.
We care what they think. We care a lot. That's why we're bombing the hell out of Afghanistan, will kill bin Laden and will go on from there.
You turtles can go hide under a rock.
There is nothing you or I can do to improve the Muslim world. Nothing. Just accept it and get over it. Part of being a Muslim is to choose your battles wisely. Even the Prophet left Mecca when he saw no more change could come. In the open and cosmopolitan society of Medina, the focus of the Muslims was in building a solid community which could live in relative safety. The Medinan situation is where the ideal of the community took form and flowered. We are now in the Meccan times today in the Muslim world and Islam, like so many Muslims, has made Hijrah to safer lands where it can work on regaining its strength.
You would think that when we were all for the ICC EXCEPT for it applying to 'our leaders and our military', Americans would have caught on.....but our arrogance doesn't allow a fair assessment.....the school bully lives!
Ok, I'll answer your question. What separates us from them? Easy. They are trying to kill my children, my neighbors (Americans) are trying to defend them.
Oh, not academic enough for you? You wanted some discussion about the meaning of words? Sorry. You wanted to keep this in the arena of word meanings, talking about the root "terror" in the words we use. Labels, like terrorism, are not perfect. Gee, how very intelligent of you to point that out. So lets move away from labels.
There is a group of people who want my kids dead and my neighbors kids dead. They want your kids dead too, if you have any.
So the label-less question to you is: are you with us in defending our kids or are you with those who want our kids dead. No labels, no root words, just the crux of the issue.
Are you with us or against us?
Of course I can. Take this drivel, for instance:
Because we are currently attacking another nation for carrying out acts of mass destruction that pale in comparison to what we ourselves have done.
This is a bald-faced lie, on its face. We've never killed 6,000 people in a non-war situation.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden...all declared wars. Anything goes in a declared war, including destroying the will to fight.
Sheltonmac is a doofus and a terrorist sympathizer. As are you.
Maybe you can tell the class why the terrorists first tried to fly fully loaded airliners into the Eiffel Tower? Did the french acts of terror provoke them too? Maybe you and your girlfriend, Shelton, can tell us of the many acts of terror the french committed.
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