Originally Posted by
1journeyman
http:///forum/post/2569594
Rudedog, you despise the war based on faulty information.That's what I am trying to convey.
How did we force the people of Iraq to vote? Please consider that. I've pointed this out before; In the face of assasination squads, snipers, car bombings and religious threats millions of Iraqis continue to participate in the election process of bringing Democracy to their country.
If they didn't want it they wouldn't be participating...
Were we wrong to go into Afghanistan too? Their Democracy, to a smaller degree, is facing similar challenges to the Iraqi Government.
You are correct, not everyone who lives under Communist rule hates it. Still, clearly the majority do. (You don't exocute 100 million plus happy people...) At the point where you are willing to revolt with pitchforks and handguns against tanks (Chk revolt of the 60's, Chines student revolt, etc) clearly there is some angst building in the populace.
We're not forcing the American Constitution on anyone. What we are doing is allowing the Iraqi and Afghanistani people to choose their way of life. A life where women can go to school, where basic human rights are observed, and where information and freedom are not treasonous words.
Osama may not have attacked us had we not run Iraq out of Kuwait. Does that mean we abandon our allies in the Middle East? Should we withdraw support from Israel in the hopes Hamas and Hezbollah will quit attacking US civilians? Should we base our Foreign Policy on the demands of terrorists?
That's what you seem to be implying Rudedog; That we allow terrorists to tell us who we can and cannot support.
No what I'm trying to tell you is if we left them alone in the first place, they may never have attacked us. This goes back way past our current involvement in that area. I'm talking about decades ago. You're the historian, so I dare not go try to reference the first time the US got involved with some Middle East dispute. That's where I'm coming from. You can take the attitude that if we NEVER got involved with Middle East politics, we would be a target anyway. So Mr. Historian, tell me - has any Middle Eastern nation in the last 100 years ever attempted a full scale invasion on any other country OUTSIDE their region? Meaning, have they ever attempted an attack on a nation like Russia, China, Europe, the US, Southern Africa? If the answer is no, then I would say they didn't do that because:
a) They didn't have the capability to wage an all-out war since they didn't have the resources to do it (Naval ships, airplanes, artillery, etc.)
b) They weren't stupid enough to try it because they know if they did, the retaliation would have meant the end of their entire existence.
So if we go on that premise, what would the world be like if we never got involved with the Middle East? My gut feeling is they'd just fight each other like they have for centuries, and could care less what the rest of the world thought. But of course there's the magical elixir called Black Gold. That's what the Middle East is really about. So we suck up to them and give them all the firepower they want for a piece of the pie. And look what that's gotten us. Trillions of dollars spent, and a world changing event that will affect evey American for the rest of their lives.
