how to achieve peace. If you look at the track record of our
involvement in the political situations of foreign nations, it's not
all that great. We've overthrown many repressive governments only to
have others spring up in their place.
As someone brought up in the American culture who does appreciate what
I have, I want to think that our vision of liberty and freedom is a
good one and I do wish for the people who, by our standards, are
oppressed to be able to enjoy the same freedoms. But when our actions
and the results of our actions result in the deaths of those we are
trying to save and historically create less peace and freedom, I have
to wonder if our methods are sound.
I fear that even our "liberating" the people won't achieve that
because liberation is a state of mind that is translated to action and
they have to choose that for themselves. Perhaps they
will actually take this opportunity to do that. I honestly hope they do.
But I think the liberation argument is another red-herring just like
WMD was. I think the real reason we are there is, as a Secretary of
State once described our entire foreign policy, as a struggle to
secure foreign resources by peacful means if possible but by force if
necessary. If we were to spend all the money spent on the war in Iraq
and develop renewable energy sources, do you honestly think we would
be as concerned about the state of things in the Middle East? If we
were really concerned with liberating people, there are plenty of
other oppressive nations out there which we conveniently ignore or
even support.
-Kevin
On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 10:27:47 -0400, Nick McClure <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Let me stipulate, I'm not evil, and by saying this I don't think that any
> individual life is less valuable than any other.
>
> Only that until all people can live in peace, people are going to die
> needless deaths, it happens everyday, and will continue to happen until the
> minds of the people can be changed to believe that we shouldn't kill or
> commit crimes in general.
>
> Passing useless laws or resolutions or placing sanctions on the people we
> disagree with doesn't help the cause. Only with action can we remove those
> who seek to carry out the evil acts, and only when those people are out of
> power can the world come together and live in peace.
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