Originally Posted By barboy2 ///barboy...I don't think any of my remarks...EVER...could be construed as me not caring about the effects any of these wars have had on our young men and women in service./// HOLLY PICASSO!!! I purposely did not mention US soldier deaths and amputations for I have deep concerns over all who have been ravaged by war(except of course those who like to terrorize), especially those who were conquered. You just reaffirmed what I have always believed about you and other invaders: You care about US personnel, only. I guess the suffering and destruction of indigenous people due to US bombs doesn't count.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Our deaths mean little to them... why should their deaths mean much to us? Sorry, but that is just the way it is. Had the Iraqis come together rather than every fringe group including terrorists jockeying for position, we would have been in and out of there in a year and none of this would have ever happened. Better for them, better for us. Instead the Iraqi violence, looting of national treasures and destruction of infrastructure made things for all of us so much incredibly more difficult than what it should have been. Frankly, I think the U.S. should have "cut and run" shortly after the Iraqi government had been defeated. Have any of us been better served by our occupation of the country since then? In trying to "do the right thing" we have done nothing but defer the inevitable conflict between the various Iraqi factions and have really accomplished nothing in the meantime except for killing a lot of them and a lot of us. Yes, the U.S. is partially responsible for the mess, but the major fault lies in the division between the Iraqi factions that have been in place for thousands of years. It took a brutal dictator like Saddam to keep those opposing factions in line. Are the Iraqis better or worse off without the dictator? I'm not really sure. There are already many in Egypt wishing the revolution had never occurred. You cannot expect people to move immediately from dictatorship to democracy... it is just not possible. Yes, the U.S. was able to break free from England, but the British rule of the U.S. followed traditions that in fact formed the basis for American democracy. We were not forced to embrace something totally new and different. In the end we really did nothing more than tweak what had been established by the British.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper barboy, I have no patience for ignorant people who draw conclusions about people they do not even know. I'm an invader? Nice. I care about all innocent people. Do I care more about US personnel? Yes...I would have to say I do.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Do I care more about US personnel? Yes...I would have to say I do.<< Isn't this simply human nature? We empathize more easily with those we can relate to, those more like us. Hippie protestations about one world, one love, we're all the same aside, that's just not the reality of human nature. That's not meant to be an excuse for not caring. I too get frustrated when the news report sounds something like this: "A tsunami wiped out 40,000 in Vietnam, five were Americans!" But themes of "us" and "them," culture and tribe can't just be waved away while John Lennon plays in the background.
Originally Posted By Labuda "You just reaffirmed what I have always believed about you and other invaders: You care about US personnel, only. I guess the suffering and destruction of indigenous people due to US bombs doesn't count." Stellar logic, barboy. Absolutely stellar.
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