Palindrome wrote:

Vile wrote:

On September 11th, 2001 a similar number of Americans were killed in one hour. Three years of war in Iraq haven't touched the number of lives snuffed out in that one day.

This is true...

No it's fucking not. It underscores a fundamental disjoint in people's thinking about war. It's a necessary disjoint for any moral individual to claim support for a war. And that is to pretend that only the lives of your side matter. You don't have to be a rabid partisan to grasp that *thousands* of Iraqi civilians have died in our war there. It's what happens in a war. Always. Anyone should feel free to support the war, but it must be with full knowledge of what that entails. It takes a truly depraved mind to dehumanize the residents of an entire nation in order to feel ok about carrying on a war ostensibly in their name.

Vile wrote:

I do believe most Americans feel safer with Saddam out of power and the playing field of the war on terror brought to a faraway arena. It's a far better thing to fight these groups in Iraq than in Philadelphia or NYC.

Fuck yeah, Saddam is a bad guy and I'm glad he's not running a country any longer. But I'm not confident that his removal is necessarily a precursor to an inherently superior government in Iraq, and I'm especially concerned that we've offered a rallying cry to terrorist recruiters the world over.

Vile wrote:

In their hatred for all things Republican, many war-opponents have forgotten both the fear and desire for safety that the WTC attacks left in their wake.

My disgust is neither blind nor trivial in it's direction. What I despise is seeing fear and hatred wielded like a tool against american citizens. When a Republican takes a stand that I find right and honorable, I do support them. That this happens so seldom is hardly my fault.

Forget our fear?! Please! We're bombarded by it constantly. It is truly gratifying to hear a war supporter finally acknowledge that Fear is the primary motivator here. What I still can't grasp is why so few such people are bothered by our being TERRIFIED of TERRORISTS. Acting out of fear is exactly what they want. Reacting fearfully is guaranteed to produce quick, poorly reasoned results. On top of which, it reinforces their methodology (by proving that it works) and simultaneously offers tons of material to their recuiting operations, because when they tell some kid that America hates muslims, it'll be supportable with fact.

I haven't forgotten my fear... I never allowed fear to take hold of me. Anger, sadness, compassion... yes. I'd rather have people motivated by love of life and love of country. That means building up defenses back home and fighting to maintain or expand our civil liberties against anyone who would limit them. In some cases it means fighting a war on foreign soil, but I think it's patently false to claim that we're defeating the terrorists by operations in Iraq. We're doing a good thing by sticking around long enough to try and give them a chance at democratic self governance, whatever the likelihood of success may be. Let's just not confuse that with fighting Al Quaida.

RE: Cindy Sheehan arrested for... wearing a shirt!