Happy Fourth Of July Everybody!
MSNBC - Red, white and groovin'
And on that note i'd like to comment on this article and probably digress into something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now with increasing severity. Most of you have heard this tyrade already so feel free to move right along, but for those of you who haven't, enjoy.
I've never known what its like to live in a different country. I've never known what its like to be without. I have a pool, a 14 foot trampoline, travel trailer, and a speed boat. There are four cellphones in this house, three computers, two internet connections, three tvs, and more books than you can shake a stick at. And I live in a small house on two modest incomes. The bangs and pops i'm listening to right now don't remind me of shellfire.
I read this article and it speaks as to what it means to be an American. It ends up with hotdogs, hamburgers, music, fireworks, beer, and chicken. What?! This country was founded on freedoms unheard of at the time. We have a lot of blackmarks on our past, the mass genocide of the American Indians, the WWF, slavery, Football, frivolous lawsuits, etc... But the most gregious blood on our hands is the blood that's being spilled right now all over the world. Sure, we're bringing home some of our troops that are currently occupying countries they don't need to be in, but we're only bringing them home because its suddenly about to become OK to prosecute them for war crimes on the international jury.
Yesterday, I got a letter from Armitage, my elementary school. Every so often they send us a survey asking us what we're up to. A few months later, they follow it with an Alumni letter, detailing what each member of our class is doing. In the time I was there no more than 10 males passed through our class, I could still name them all to you. Yesterday, I found out that four of them have joined the military and are at this very moment somewhere overseas fighting to protect us. Carl, Garret, Eric, and Robbie...These are kids I grew up with. When this war started I never thought to look back and see where they were. I guess I probably should have.
I've been worrying, primarially, about Kyle. I went to highschool with him at Prairie, knew him for maybe a year. We made a deal when he graduated, that he or his family would keep me posted when he left the country. They've kept that promise and as of a few weeks ago, he was still okay. In Iraq, but not missing any limbs.
What the hell are we doing over there? We handed them their government and we certainly aren't keeping the peace. Militants aren't going after Iraqi civilians, they're after us. If they want their country back, let them have it. We went in, we took out Saddam, which is all Bush really wanted to do. Why are we still there. Every day more American lives are lost, and for what? What are we doing for them? They don't want us there.
Are we making the world safer for democracy? While it may have been an arguable point before, i've seen no weapons of mass destruction, chemical or otherwise. Did we find Osama hiding in Saddam's coat pocket? No. Have we uncovered any plots to attack neighboring countries? No.
While I fully agree that Saddam is a psycho bastard by American standards, most Iraqi's, as we're finding now, seemed to like him. He killed insurgants and many innocent women and children died in the fray, but they're still dying today, but now their blood is on our hands.
Are we trying to stamp out Islamic extremists? Is that what we're after here? It's not going to happen. Extremism is dangerous in all forms. Extremist Christians started the Spanish Inquisition. Not a good idea. Look at Israel. This one tiny piece of land is so worth fighting for that thousands have died to protect it. It isn't made of gold, it doesn't have diamond mines or vast oil wells. What Israel has is something intangible but 100,000,000 times more deadly; a concentrated religious following.
This country was founded on the premise of freedom of choice in religion. Our founders came here to seek sanctuary from a government imposing its values on them and we have now become the British crown, heavy a few nuclear weapons. We are now flying across the world with assualt rifles, tanks, bombs, grenades, and more artilary than i care to think of to do just that; impose our values on a people that do not accept them. The only right we have to interfere in the soveringty of another nation comes when that nation refuses to allow political defectors safe passage out of the country or threatens the soverignity of another nation. We have done so, against Iraq. Every so often they get a little big for their britches and start building huge cannons, and we go in and take the cannon away and shake our finger. We don't have a right, given by God or man, to do more than that.
I just want my boys back. I want them home safe and I want them home soon. We've thrown mere children into war, something no one should ever have to see. For god's sake, they're running Drowning Pool through their helmet head-sets as the ride into cities. They're young enough to still listen to Drowning Pool. Good god... Does President Bush feel no paternal instincts toward the nation he has been entrusted to protect, but not only the nation, the protection of the Constitution he swore to uphold. The document may have a few old school flaws...like the fact that it doesn't recognize African American's as people...but by and large, they've got the basic ideas right; Freedom of the press, religion, speech. The freedom to peaceful assembly. Equality (like i said, it needs a little tweeking)...
I am so scared for these kids. I see a man, almost daily, who walks up and down the streets of Kenosha carrying an American flag. Everyone thinks he's homeless. He's not. He's a WWII Veteran, driven into madness by what he saw there. We fought that war for every man, woman, and child across Europe that died at the hands of Adolf Hitler. We fought that war for every soldier and nurse that died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. We fought that war for the safety of every American citizen.
Our troops offer their lives to protect us. Was it really worth it, Mr. President?
And on that note i'd like to comment on this article and probably digress into something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now with increasing severity. Most of you have heard this tyrade already so feel free to move right along, but for those of you who haven't, enjoy.
I've never known what its like to live in a different country. I've never known what its like to be without. I have a pool, a 14 foot trampoline, travel trailer, and a speed boat. There are four cellphones in this house, three computers, two internet connections, three tvs, and more books than you can shake a stick at. And I live in a small house on two modest incomes. The bangs and pops i'm listening to right now don't remind me of shellfire.
I read this article and it speaks as to what it means to be an American. It ends up with hotdogs, hamburgers, music, fireworks, beer, and chicken. What?! This country was founded on freedoms unheard of at the time. We have a lot of blackmarks on our past, the mass genocide of the American Indians, the WWF, slavery, Football, frivolous lawsuits, etc... But the most gregious blood on our hands is the blood that's being spilled right now all over the world. Sure, we're bringing home some of our troops that are currently occupying countries they don't need to be in, but we're only bringing them home because its suddenly about to become OK to prosecute them for war crimes on the international jury.
Yesterday, I got a letter from Armitage, my elementary school. Every so often they send us a survey asking us what we're up to. A few months later, they follow it with an Alumni letter, detailing what each member of our class is doing. In the time I was there no more than 10 males passed through our class, I could still name them all to you. Yesterday, I found out that four of them have joined the military and are at this very moment somewhere overseas fighting to protect us. Carl, Garret, Eric, and Robbie...These are kids I grew up with. When this war started I never thought to look back and see where they were. I guess I probably should have.
I've been worrying, primarially, about Kyle. I went to highschool with him at Prairie, knew him for maybe a year. We made a deal when he graduated, that he or his family would keep me posted when he left the country. They've kept that promise and as of a few weeks ago, he was still okay. In Iraq, but not missing any limbs.
What the hell are we doing over there? We handed them their government and we certainly aren't keeping the peace. Militants aren't going after Iraqi civilians, they're after us. If they want their country back, let them have it. We went in, we took out Saddam, which is all Bush really wanted to do. Why are we still there. Every day more American lives are lost, and for what? What are we doing for them? They don't want us there.
Are we making the world safer for democracy? While it may have been an arguable point before, i've seen no weapons of mass destruction, chemical or otherwise. Did we find Osama hiding in Saddam's coat pocket? No. Have we uncovered any plots to attack neighboring countries? No.
While I fully agree that Saddam is a psycho bastard by American standards, most Iraqi's, as we're finding now, seemed to like him. He killed insurgants and many innocent women and children died in the fray, but they're still dying today, but now their blood is on our hands.
Are we trying to stamp out Islamic extremists? Is that what we're after here? It's not going to happen. Extremism is dangerous in all forms. Extremist Christians started the Spanish Inquisition. Not a good idea. Look at Israel. This one tiny piece of land is so worth fighting for that thousands have died to protect it. It isn't made of gold, it doesn't have diamond mines or vast oil wells. What Israel has is something intangible but 100,000,000 times more deadly; a concentrated religious following.
This country was founded on the premise of freedom of choice in religion. Our founders came here to seek sanctuary from a government imposing its values on them and we have now become the British crown, heavy a few nuclear weapons. We are now flying across the world with assualt rifles, tanks, bombs, grenades, and more artilary than i care to think of to do just that; impose our values on a people that do not accept them. The only right we have to interfere in the soveringty of another nation comes when that nation refuses to allow political defectors safe passage out of the country or threatens the soverignity of another nation. We have done so, against Iraq. Every so often they get a little big for their britches and start building huge cannons, and we go in and take the cannon away and shake our finger. We don't have a right, given by God or man, to do more than that.
I just want my boys back. I want them home safe and I want them home soon. We've thrown mere children into war, something no one should ever have to see. For god's sake, they're running Drowning Pool through their helmet head-sets as the ride into cities. They're young enough to still listen to Drowning Pool. Good god... Does President Bush feel no paternal instincts toward the nation he has been entrusted to protect, but not only the nation, the protection of the Constitution he swore to uphold. The document may have a few old school flaws...like the fact that it doesn't recognize African American's as people...but by and large, they've got the basic ideas right; Freedom of the press, religion, speech. The freedom to peaceful assembly. Equality (like i said, it needs a little tweeking)...
I am so scared for these kids. I see a man, almost daily, who walks up and down the streets of Kenosha carrying an American flag. Everyone thinks he's homeless. He's not. He's a WWII Veteran, driven into madness by what he saw there. We fought that war for every man, woman, and child across Europe that died at the hands of Adolf Hitler. We fought that war for every soldier and nurse that died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. We fought that war for the safety of every American citizen.
Our troops offer their lives to protect us. Was it really worth it, Mr. President?
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