I don't think I'll ever be able to understand the mindset that believes it is OK for our country to invade other countries that have done nothing to us and who believes we belong in Iraq. The following article expresses my feelings about it perfectly, that to those on the receiving end of our unprovoked acts of aggression, we are the terrorists.

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"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

Afghanistan was not unprovoked.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Afghanistan was provoked.

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No party holds the privilege of dictating to me how I shall vote. If loyalty to party is a form of patriotism, I am no patriot. If there is any valuable difference between a monarchist and an American, it lies in the theory that the American can decide for himself what is patriotic and what isn't. I claim that difference. I am the only person in the sixty millions that is privileged to dictate my patriotism.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

The invasion of Afghanistan was not unprovoked.

Iraq...was.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Which is why in '91 we shoudlnt have stopped untill we reached Baghdad.

Nah, not a good idea. If you want to avoid an insurgency it has to be a slow, drawn out affair, ending with the ruination of most of your cities and the suicide of your leader.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You can blame President Wilson for that one: he's the guy who promoted the notion that America was "exceptional" among the nations of the world and, as such, had a responsibility to impose its will on and intervene in the rest of the world (that whole "saving the world for democracy" thing). That exceptionalism has been the basis for American foreign policy ever since.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

That exceptionalism has been a guiding hallmark of American culture and society, period.

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"Oh, bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round...

not unprovoked = provoked.

__________________
No party holds the privilege of dictating to me how I shall vote. If loyalty to party is a form of patriotism, I am no patriot. If there is any valuable difference between a monarchist and an American, it lies in the theory that the American can decide for himself what is patriotic and what isn't. I claim that difference. I am the only person in the sixty millions that is privileged to dictate my patriotism.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

I have no problems with military action if actually invited in, like when Kuwait screamed for help in '91. Or, say we send the Army Corps of Engies to help do some disaster relief, etc. Those sorts of things make sense, have a clear moral basis and make us look good.

Everyone dumps on the UN, but I like the idea of it. I want some other force to have to go in and do peacekeeping and fight insurgents, etc., not US all the time. It's ruinously expensive policing the world, and I'd be quite happy if the world did it for themselves.

As I recall, virtually nobody else in the world considered Iraq a threat to anything at all. Yeah, that really ought to be a sign, you know? WE'RE the one's with egg on our face when it inevitably went south, and other countries are laughing.

Sure, terrorism's a threat. Let's have the rest of the world pony up some money and manpower to fight it, we've done more than our share, expended enough soldiers and shouldered the hatred of the Middle East.

Just like the quarterback can't do all the scoring himself, let's hand the damn ball off to the Swiss or the French once in a while.

We're bankrupting ourselves needlessly.

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"Oh, bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round...