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Originally Posted by fistfullofroses  Why do you say it is all lies? I am a young Marine Corps vet, and from everything I have been told, everything I have seen, and everyone the my buddies and I have talked to... America was right in her actions. The United States was attacked by a terrorist group. Bush said openly that if you do not help us you are against us. If you harbor terrorists, you are against us. While we had many reasons for attacking Iraq, one of them is along his initial statements, Saddam was allowing terrorists free passage through his country and allowed them to stay there as well. As for people who say that is well and good but we should get out, people say that Iraq is in the midst of civil war. How is it a civil war if most of the fighting is not done by Iraqis but Iranians? Most of the insurgents we are now fighting are all Iranian. Odd huh? You know what's weirder? Iranians are not muslims. They are not even really arabic. They are bahai. But its holy war? Its civil war? Nah. Then people want to say that Iraqis do not want us in Iraq. HAVE YOU BEEN THERE? HAVE YOU SEEN THE GRATEFUL TRYING TO THANK THE US TROOPS? HOW THEY RUN TOWARD OUR TROOPS WITH TEARS IN THEIR EYES AND DROP TO THEIR KNEES IN GRATITUDE? |
I'm always so conflicted when I see testimonies or stories from young servicemen (service-people?) who are in the armed forces now or who have been in the recent past. On the one hand, I truly am grateful to those of you who are willing and able to defend our country and our ideals, who believe in democracy and freedom and care about it enough to put your lives on the line. Thank you.
On the other, I don't believe that our Commander-In-Chief has any legitimate reason to ask, require or order any of our troops to fight or die for this particular cause. This war has been a long time in coming and there's a very rich history of US and European nations involved in that whole region that has led up to this. The middle east has been an area of interest and conflict for about 100 years now; since about the time of the industrial revolution.
fistfullofroses, I acknowledge that you've experienced things over there that I've only been given small glimpses of from the media and I have no doubt that there are many people still left in Iraq who are glad to see Saddam deposed. After all, he was bent on the genocide of the Kurds and the Shiites. It is very gratifying to know that even amidst all the chaos and destruction there are a few lives that have been favorably impacted.
By the way, did you know we put Saddam in power? Yeah, they might not have know that either. We've also sort of had this plan to get rid of him since at least 1998 because he no longer served our needs but for one reason or another it's just never been feasible. Until now. Did you know we sold him biological and chemical weapons? I'm pretty sure that's something they weren't aware of either.
But this all begs the question that I think many people have lost sight of... what happened to Osama Bin Ladin and his Al-Queda terrorists? Remember... those guys hiding out in the hills, in caves... those guys who are now supposedly holing up just inside the border of Packistan? They were the ones that flew the planes into the World Trade Center. Not Iraq. Not Saddam. Saddam actually, for all his many, many flaws, wanted no part of Al-Queda. Or the Taliban. (Incidentally, we've aided both of them as well, in the past.) While we're on the subject of who we've aided, did you also know that we sold a nuclear reactor to Iran? Yeah, granted that was quite a few years ago. Back in the 70's I think. And NOW we're upset that they have nuclear capabilities? It just NOW occurs to us that they might aim it right at Israel. Or us. But most likely Israel. That's pretty much verbatim what they said, anyway. Whatever. We give Israel arms and aid too. I'm not even going to get into that can of worms.
fistfullofroses, I applaud your conviction and your purity of intentions. At the same time it saddens me that it's been spent on this stupid war of corruption and control. I urge you to do some research on Brittan, the former USSR and America's history in the middle east over the past century. Please look at the history of Russia, the US and Afghanistan; of the proposed oil pipeline, our role in the Shaw, Saddam and Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and Israel. Our country, it's leaders and it's past actions are certainly not the innocent party here. What we experienced when the World Trade Center's towers went down was a small fraction of what these people live with ever day. Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that... you've seen it firsthand. This has nothing to do with harboring terrorists or being for or against the United States. It has everything to do with wanting to control a resource and thereby controlling other sovereign nations and their people.
This war is in now way representative of American ideals of freedom and democracy but everything to do with greed and power-brokering. I support our troops and I think the best way to support them is to bring them home safely and soon.