Shock and Awe - The Face of War

It amazes me at times that people who I would consider intelligent can make such stupid comments. I have read other web logs and when the topic of the Iraqi war comes up, people will many times check their brains in at the door. Here is my opinion for what it's worth on the war in Iraq.

First of all, I oppose the war. I oppose any war because war is the end of rational communication and tolerance. But, that doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't be there. There are principles worth fighting for. Freedom is not a concept. It is our reality in the United States, and it didn't come easily! The same freedom that people exercise when they give anti-war demonstrations is the same freedom that has the blood of thousands upon thousands of our brothers and sisters. They did not die in vain. They felt freedom was worth fighting for. They thought that it was worth the risk of sacrificing one's very life to defend. They were right!

Does protesting the war make one "Un-American"? No, it does not. By demonstrating against the war, you are exercising your freedom to express yourself without being put in prison or executed. Think about that for a minute and let it really sink in. There are places in the world (Iraq is one of them), where by simply opening your mouth and saying how much something "sucks", you can be killed, tortured, or have your tongue cut out. There is no court of appeals. There is no one to fight for you. The sentence is absolute and final. The image of a Kurdish woman comes to mind. Her hands were dipped in gasoline and set on fire. She was in a hospital with half her fingers gone and burns all over her arms. Her crime was that she made a remark about the approach of freedom on Kurdish television.

Does bashing and directing derogatory comments towards our troops who are fighting for freedom make you "Un-American"? You damn right it does. If that's the way you feel, you are a hypocrite to enjoy the very freedom that others died defending so you can open your big trap and show the world how stupid and little you are. You should pack your bags and leave America, the Home of the FREE. You should go to a country that has no freedom. Just keep in mind, you probably won't last long. You may get a few words in, and then you will disappear.

I believe in freedom and unlike many Americans, if I were younger and my country asked me to defend freedom for the oppressed, I can think of nothing more noble to fight for. If freedom is kept, it would be worth my life. I solute our troops in Iraq. I believe in what they stand for and I am humbled by their courage. They give me hope that some in the world still have a commitment to the value of life and freedom.

We did not do this to Saddam Hussein. He did it to his people, his country, and to himself. How anyone can say we didn't give diplomacy a chance is beyond me. This war was inevitable. We would eventually had to deal with Saddam Hussein. It's better we get this over with. It was amazing to see the Iraqi people tearing down posters of Saddam Hussein and tasting perhaps the first freedom they have ever had in their lives. They were literally dancing with joy. And many were starving.

Arrogance: "overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors" (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition). The one thing that bothers me most about the Bush Administration is their arrogance towards the rest of the world. Freedom aside, they have been wanting to do this to Iraq for a very long time and September 11th gave them the opportunity to do this. Is Iraq linked to Al qaeda? Maybe - maybe not. There's no smoking gun here. As long as we are talking about immediate threats to the United States, North Korea certainly gets my attention over Iraq. They currently have the capability of delivering a nuclear war head to the west coast of North America. No more Los Angeles. No more San Francisco. Is Iraq more of a threat than that? Our current administration seems to think so. And, whatever happened to Osama bin Ladin? Do we still care? I haven't heard lately how we are pursuing that. Does anyone wonder why the focus of September 11th was changed from bin Ladin and Al qaeda to Iraq? Perhaps Iraq is nothing more than a diversion from our total failure to bring bin Ladin to justice. How easily we forget.