What I'm about to say and talk about may make me sound anti-American. I just want to preface everything I'm about to say with a simple fact. I love my country and I love the people in it. The people in this country are wonderful and, for the most part, we are still one of the greatest places within the world to work and live.
Ok, now here it comes ...
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/12/20/133001
Basically, this person mentioned some things about Osama bin Laden that instantly inflamed a lot of Republicans (and other people as well). However, have we been so blind-sided by truth and apparent truths that we can no longer, as a majority within this nation, understand the real causes of terrorism and what is taking place currently?
Let's just go out on a large tangent and assume that the group behind September 11'th did not do this for shits and giggles. This isn't a drug deal gone bad which was followed by a drive-by shooting that let several bystanders on the street dead.
Perhaps we, as a nation, should take a step back and ask the really hard question -- did we contribute to 9/11? Nobody in a public office could dare juggle that question, but isn't that a very valid question to be asking? The reason why nobody in a public office can ask that question is because the United States, as a whole, is just pissed off and wants revenge. If someone were to step out and suggest that we, in some way or another, may have partially contributed to the mess we are in, they would be in a situation not unlike someone who was accused of being a Communist under Mccarthyism.
So let's just assume that we go over and wipe the Iraqi government clean. Then what will take place? Wouldn't such a large power-vacuum create even greater instabilities within that region? How long will it take before the instability reaches a critical mass and other countries have no choice but to become involved?
At some point, the United States interests will be perpendicular to some of our closest allies. It isn't a question of if, but of when. When that does happen, what are we to do? What gives us a right to self-preservation of our current way of life moreso to all the other countries within the world?
Sadly, I guess I'm starting to come to the realization that the United States will not be acting out of some "noble grace" to rid the world of the "axis of evil" -- but instead, we're simply assuring our way of life for however long we can by pushing back the inevitable that continues to become more grave the further we push it into the future.
If we were to confront this ugliness today, it would be quite unbearable for many to realize -- but it seems like the current administration would rather not confront the "REAL" issues and push them deeper into the future. The problem then becomes -- with each passing week, month and year, we're making the ugliness that we will eventually need to face even uglier.
This has now gone well beyond greed, money, energy policy, oil and ego -- it seems as if the conflict has taken on a course of its own, where the only inevitable consequence is an eventual destabilization of our own country and values because we have whored ourselves out to something that is ugly, yet not very clear to the American public.
Ok, now here it comes ...
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/12/20/133001
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is under fire today for praising terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, leader of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans.
"Weâve got to ask, why is this man [bin Laden] so popular around the world?" Murray said to pupils Wednesday at a government high school in Vancouver, Wash. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries ... that are riddled with poverty?
"Heâs been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that.
"How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?" Murray said, according to The Columbian, the daily newspaper in Vancouver.
Basically, this person mentioned some things about Osama bin Laden that instantly inflamed a lot of Republicans (and other people as well). However, have we been so blind-sided by truth and apparent truths that we can no longer, as a majority within this nation, understand the real causes of terrorism and what is taking place currently?
Let's just go out on a large tangent and assume that the group behind September 11'th did not do this for shits and giggles. This isn't a drug deal gone bad which was followed by a drive-by shooting that let several bystanders on the street dead.
Perhaps we, as a nation, should take a step back and ask the really hard question -- did we contribute to 9/11? Nobody in a public office could dare juggle that question, but isn't that a very valid question to be asking? The reason why nobody in a public office can ask that question is because the United States, as a whole, is just pissed off and wants revenge. If someone were to step out and suggest that we, in some way or another, may have partially contributed to the mess we are in, they would be in a situation not unlike someone who was accused of being a Communist under Mccarthyism.
So let's just assume that we go over and wipe the Iraqi government clean. Then what will take place? Wouldn't such a large power-vacuum create even greater instabilities within that region? How long will it take before the instability reaches a critical mass and other countries have no choice but to become involved?
At some point, the United States interests will be perpendicular to some of our closest allies. It isn't a question of if, but of when. When that does happen, what are we to do? What gives us a right to self-preservation of our current way of life moreso to all the other countries within the world?
Sadly, I guess I'm starting to come to the realization that the United States will not be acting out of some "noble grace" to rid the world of the "axis of evil" -- but instead, we're simply assuring our way of life for however long we can by pushing back the inevitable that continues to become more grave the further we push it into the future.
If we were to confront this ugliness today, it would be quite unbearable for many to realize -- but it seems like the current administration would rather not confront the "REAL" issues and push them deeper into the future. The problem then becomes -- with each passing week, month and year, we're making the ugliness that we will eventually need to face even uglier.
This has now gone well beyond greed, money, energy policy, oil and ego -- it seems as if the conflict has taken on a course of its own, where the only inevitable consequence is an eventual destabilization of our own country and values because we have whored ourselves out to something that is ugly, yet not very clear to the American public.
