American Pride

Why is it that you feel that anyone who disagrees with you is stupid? Who got the idea into your head that your way of thinking and your opinions were the only ones that mattered?

You assume flawlessness in yourself, but assume that those who do not agree with you must not be in full possesion of the facts, without thinking that perhaps, someone has a different point of view, or that,

they might know something that you don't.

For the record, I think that the U.S. was absolutely justified to go into Afghanistan (though they blew it in the latter stages, including letting the key Al Quaida officers escape and are now dragging their feet in rebuilding that country). Attacking Iraq right now would be like attempting to destroy a hornet's nest with your bare hands because you are afraid you are going to get stung later by even more of them.

And think about this: Who would be the happiest men alive if we attacked Iraq? A: Osama and all his cronies. With the U.S. engaged in the distraction of an expensive, globally unpopular war, killing masses of arab civilians, Al Quaida will be at the height of their righteousness and will gain incredibly in their capability for further destruction American lives and credibility.

Like I said, I am done debating this issue, but...

You misspelled Al-Qaida.

Twice.

A few points on all of these topics:

1) I reluctantly say that we have to be committed to Afganistan. I say it reluctantly because I am one of the guys who will have to go there, but this is why. When the Afgans were fighting the Russians during the Cold War Osama was one of our guys. We supplied them and we helped (strongly) cause a civil war within Afganistan. This is a fact my friend. We supported this war for years and then when the Russians finally decided to withdraw what did we do? We pulled out and the Warlords took over. Prior to that the country was relatively peaceful. Now we are back and we have yet again worked through a "civil war" but this time we have to be committed so that it isn't necessary to do the job again in the future. What do they need? Well, our presence will help them to buy time, long enough to build a police force and military that will enable them to police themselves. This is necessary so that other nations will feel secure enough to invest in their country. We have to prevent opium from becoming their major export again. If there is peace and security in the country then Pakistan and India will invest and they can again become a solid nation. Let's face it Nike has done more to build third world nations than the U.S. has. See I will bring running into this eventually. We want cheap running shoes so Nike can go and give them jobs:-)

2) Saddam was also our buddy. We loved him guys. He was our man vs. the Iranians. Then he turned bad and invaded Kuwait so we committed forces. Pres. Bush (senior) said all along that we wanted the Iraqi people to revolt and oust him from power but we failed to properly support the uprising. In the south there was an uprising but we didn't have a clear conflict termination policy. Gen. Swartzkopf (MSP) allowed them to fly their helicopters and they used this to quell the uprising. Our mistake but not necessarily the Generals...this is a State Dept. and National Command Authority issue. So he escaped the war with a large majority of his military equipment (necessity for a dictatorship) and was able to put down the uprising (which we should have aided) and remained in power. Now we may be back to deal with the issue again. He certainly has an enormous stockpile of chemical and biological weapons but he is limited by his number of balistic missles with which to deliver it. Does he have nuclear weapons? Probably not right now but is it worth taking the chance and waiting?

Finally, Kim Jung Ill (may have mispelled that one too). This is really an interesting issue but then again the entire Korean peninsula is. Yes he is nuclear capable but who sells plutonium to Korea? Yes, we do. He is also a dictator who uses the military to control the country. He controls the populations entire life and has a very effective way of dealing with problem people. That culture is very different. You have people who will turn their own family in for breaking the "rules." This may and often does cost them their lives. We play this card carefully but his economy is crumbling and some say it could implode. So what are his choices? He can westernize or he could start a war...that always helps to rally the people. We don't want this fight so we will continue to play the cards in a very weird way with North Korea.

Enough of my babling. I'll just go where Uncle Sams says go and do my job.

jimmy

Answer, I mean Question - I thought JEH put a stop to this debate? JEH, where are you man? Looks like you need to come in here and finish the job.

Hey all of you politicos, Let's Run is a RUNNING site. If you really get off on political stuff, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel run this kind of shit ALL FREAKING DAY AND NIGHT! They also have websites!

Now for some running stuff. Would the Africans be even more dominant if World Monetary Fund policy was altered to reflect the Keynsian model of the development of Third World econ....

Wow!

One innocent and short comment and we get a couple of days worth of threads led by the initial clown who responded to my post - Knower - who must have been chomping at the bit to blow someone out of the water with his pat comments.

Bushman,

Real big of you to come back and make a seemingly final comment after we've all tired of the subject that YOU started. Next time, I advise that you try to defend your comments when you make them in a timely manner, or just stay away all together.

I sat and read every post from this thread and one thing is clear to me. Knower is more educated and expressed his opinion more clearly than any of his detractors. That being said, let me throw my two cents in about the "Evil Empire" some left leaners wish to paint America as.

Here we go: After the Gulf War the US had over 60,000 Iraqi POW's. What do you think our "Evil Empire" did with them? That's right, we set them free.

Now ask yourself: Would Saddam have done that if Iraq had 60,000 American soldiers in his custody?

knowhere: This bump's for you.

I will accept your niggling over a hyphen as a white flag on the substantive issues. But I advise that you work a little harder on your typos and syntax errors if you are to continue this pose of "unrelenting arrogance".

Good grief if there ever needed to be this from me it is now - "Move On".

Answer Man wrote:

Good grief if there ever needed to be this from me it is now - "Move On".

Answer Man - I'm with you all the way on this subject. It's too much. Let it DIE!

Amazing the venom that gets spewed forth from an innocuous comment.

What a shame you couldn't let this one die. "Move On".

i see your point, but this was the first time i had seen the thread and couldn't resist putting my two cents in. it was a violent visceral reaction, i'm only human.

I understand what you are saying. I got interested in the thread too late also. Sometimes though you just have to let it go. It is your overall respect that is paramount, and you lose some with late posting. It's a unwritten rule, but it is true nonetheless.

fair enough.

Knower: trackhead and I are NOT the same, douchebag. But, clearly ?random guy? is you. You couldn?t come up with a better ?objective ?viewer? to agree with you than ?random guy? ? God, that is sad.

Answer Man: what is more sad, that some of us can not let this die, or that you feel the need to call yourself ?Answer Man? (are you ?Knower? too? Your arrogance is very similar)? And that you feel the need to decide which threads die and which do not? Relax power-tripper, and read something else.

Thanks mcpuddlemaker for some intelligence.

I swear on a stack of Bibles that random guy is not me. Sorry, but it is very possible for more than one person to disagree with you, especially when you have such a lame stance based on ignorance.