Operation Iraqi Freedom @ MindSay

In light of the fact that my daughter is active Army, it shouldn't surprise you to know I am one of many who actually support G.W. and the Iraqi Freedom action.  It is a hard fact that throughout history, freedom has come with a price, a blood sacrifice.  Nevertheless, it is reality,  AND most past wars, by the standard of those who call our present involvement illegal, have also been illegal and ruthless ... started by selfish, power-hungry men.  That's the point!  One man, obsessed and power-hungry though charismatic charmed hundreds of thousands into blatant hatred of Jews half a century ago.  We (the US) turned a blind eye, until Japan - for a whole separate bunch of issues, attacked the US at Pearl Harbor.  If that hadn't happened, would the US have continued to ignore Hitler?  Guess we'll never know. 

 

Starting with the "conflict" in Viet Nam, the press has played an under-estimated role on public opinion, and therefore, gov't responses.  By bombarding Americans with horrific images of brutality and inhumanity, the media manipulated an unsuspecting public into a rage that remains an abomination – the way we treated our returning service men and women was a dark chapter in our short history. They're repeating this now, in our midst, and it is heart-wrenching. We swore we would never let it happen again, and yet ... it is happening. Not just our servicemen/women but now our hatred is aimed at those in Washington, and even ... to our neighbors. The media evokes this hatred and we don't quite see it for what it is. Neither do we know how to manage it, so ... we let it go where THEY tell us to ... Hate President Bush. Hate those who are different ... Hate those from foreign lands ... Hate those who worship differently ... Hate the Republicans. Hate the Democrats ... Pity Brittany, shun the religious, embrace the “gangster” mentality, and the list of false images goes on ... controlled by a media accountable to no one!

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

One of the things that we sometimes forget runs hand in hand with FREEDOM is ... responsibility, a word many find distasteful these days. Like it or not, as a free people, we DO have more knowledge of global events and are therefore, responsible to act on behalf of those savagely oppressed in other places. Although I do not believe we should put a price-tag on our assistance, can't ignore the Husseins or Hitlers that find their way to power! The same people that are incensed about Iraq, are the ones crying out for US involvement in Tibet or Sudan. I have stated in my blog before that it is my opinion that we, as finite human beings, are not equipped emotionally or mentally, to deal with the horrendous events that occur daily in the US and abroad.  Man's inhumanity to man is beyond comprehension to "decent" people, so ... when we see and/or hear what our sensationalist commercial media broadcast, we cannot help but respond emotionally.  The problem is, they're in it for $$$$$$$ ... BIG BUCKS!  You and I know this, right?  So ... why are we so eager to buy their lies?  their composite images of horror and blood?  The media today has become a "gladiator" sport, and they control what you and I believe about ourselves, our nation, and our world far more than we understand. To whom is the media in general accountable? 

 

In regards to the Iraqi War, I hear & read how deceptive the present administration has been, and how we should never have gone in the first place ... yada, yada, yada, but would you have the gov't outline in detail our plan of attack in public? For those who believe G.W is behind 9/11 ... how can he be both the "most idiotic" president we have had AND still mastermind the most devastating attack on US soil?  But I digress ...

 

Below is a list of current death toll stats for the leading killers of Americans.  We cry that our young men and women are being killed in Iraq illegally, but if you look at the truth, significantly more of our young people are killed daily by drunk drivers (an average of 36 fatalities occurred per day on America’s roadways as a result of crashes involving an alcohol impaired driver, and that was 2 years ago! NHTSA )  The media has convinced many Americans that the sacrifice of our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan is needless, that their issues are none of our business.  At the same time, the media's lack of attention on other "issues" ... the carnage in various places in Africa, for example, leaves us out of balance in our global view and emotionally charged in opposition to what we do not understand because our information is limited and biased. The only thing that can make our involvement in Iraq useless is to pull out now and nullify the progress our men and women have purchased for the inhabitants of Iraq with their lives.

 

Maybe we should spend a bit more emotion on the top killers on the list below ... ? Just a thought!

 

 

Death Toll
January 1, 2008 - April 12, 2008 (1:18 pm)
United States of America

 

If you are a supporter of the War in Iraq (or anyone else) please check out the link below. WARNING: not for the week of stomach, seriously.

"There are no permanent allies, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests." --Chinese proverb

We've all learned by now of the seismic activity that was recently recorded in the waters of the North Pacific, that undoubtedly was a nuclear test by North Korea. And a success even if it wasn't the biggest possible explosion. Clearly no good can come of this, because even if Kim Jong Il can make nuclear weapons, he can sell nuclear weapons. Smart people were more than just speculating five years ago in the immediate wake of 9/11 and concluded that the single greatest threat to world peace, not just here but anywhere was found at the intersection of weapons of mass destruction and Islamo-terrorism. This is eerily closer to becoming reality.

And one thing supporters and critics of President Bush, Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terror should be able to agree on.

"We are, at present, at the unravelling of the nonproliferation regime and the global nuclear order that we've taken for granted . . . This is a huge event whose importance may only become evident in five years" says Graham Allison, former assistant secretary of Defense under President Clinton.

from the same article in the Sunday Times "The only early-warning system to detect countries that are going down the nuclear weapons road appears unable to do its job. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has failed to detect cheating by countries at an early stage in part because it lacks the authority to do necessary investigations. It also has no enforcement power to stop what it discovers and can only report to the Security Council, which has had trouble agreeing on appropriate punishments."

Comforting isn't it. If the UN was unable, because it is incapable, of preventing North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons what confidence in the world does anybody have that they will be successful in deterring Iran?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nukes15oct15,1,7325444.story

"FAS (Federation of American Scientists) members warned the American people in stark and simple terms . . . the whole world would soon be nuclear-armed. There is no secret here, they said, and there is also no defense. The Nuclear Age is upon us, and it cannot be undone."

"Nuclear proliferation did proceed, but for 50 years it was slowed (in some cases stopped) by diplomacy and, more fundamentally, by the Cold War itself, with the guarantees it offered to nonnuclear nations of surrogate nuclear strength under the U.S. and Soviet retaliatory 'umbrellas'."

" . . . the umbrellas have frayed, and the world has become a more fractured and complicated place, no longer bound by the old alliances, where independent nuclearl arsenals have greater meaning than before." As the Soviet Union dissolved, the world in terms of security has gone from a stable bipolar contest between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to a less stable one defined by multipolar contests for power and security, despite the fact that the U.S. still reigns supreme. That's not how the "end of history" and the "peace dividend" was supposed to go back in 1989.

"Nuclear weapons technology has become a useful tool, especially for the weak. It allows them to satisfy their ambitions without much expense. If they want to intimidate others, to be respected by others, this is not the easiest way to do it. Once a country decides to become a nuclear weapons power, it will do so regardless of international sanctions or incentives. . . It is not a question of what is fair, or right or wrong."

Perhaps most depressing is in the conclusion; "it is important to recognize that the spread of nuclear weapons is a condition over which we do not have control and for which there is no solution. It does no good to bemoan the folly of it all or to belabor the fact that we are the ones who ushered in the Nuclear Age. The world is an unsafe place and we have no choice but to live in it. Pretending otherwise, or imagining that we can impose order when we lack the power to do so, is the surest recipe for self-destruction and disaster."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-langewiesche15oct15,0,1492721.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

Sobering.

If there truly is nothing that can be done about the fact that North Korea in addition to Pakistan and India have now developed nuclear weapons and that Iran will be next but not last and that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a fact of life then it seems to me that we have two choices; neither of them attractive, but necessary. One, we call off the pretense that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is a crowning success and the doctrine that will disarm the planet and usher in world peace and dump it by maintaining our stock and superiority of such weapons for its deterrent value on would be users and detonators. And two, begin to take seriously the idea of a nuclear missile defense system that would intercept and destroy inbound nukes providing a second deterrent to would be users and providing the actual defense to such a hellish holocaust nobody wants to see happen.

Oh, and one last thing . . . before you cast your vote this November; for Congress and Senate, with the balance of power up for grabs remember what would be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said regarding just such a defense system just a few short years ago; "The United States does not need a multi-billion-dollar national missile defense against the possibility of a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile." Oh really, Madam Congresswoman?? And just what is the United States to do when less than democratic and stable regimes begin to acquire nuclear weapoms? Disarm? Spend the better part of a decade trying to talk them out of it like the Clinton Administration did with North Korea back in the 1990's?? Close our eyes and hope for the best???

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=103

Remember what is truly at stake in this election, in every election in the post 9/11, post Cold War world, and how truly dangerous it is, and remember which party is the stupid party, and which party is the dangerous party.

Any vote for any Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability. I'm voting for the stupid party.

Just so everyone knows.  The current operations in Iraq are worth my serving over here.  There has been great progress but they still have a ways to go to get on their feet.  I believe they have the same right to freedom as we do and want to help them obtain that.  There are many Iraqi's that thank us for doing what we have done.  They don't feel opressed anymore.  Sometimes I feel that the US troops get more support from the Iraqi people than we do from our own country.  If you read the paper and web sites on the internet that is how it seems.  I do not want another 9-11, I don't want to leave the country unprepared and let it fall back into the hands of someone like Sudam.  These people deserve a chance as well.  Don't get me wrong, there are those over here that are making our lives a living hell and don't want us in their country.  But I don't want them attacking our country either. 

I believe they did support OSAMA. Especially with all the Al qada cells here.  Support the troops, give us encouragement.  Don't ridicule us for being over here.  We are following orders.  I will fight when I have to.  If it means killing someone to stay alive than so be it.  My main goal is to return home safe to my family.  I will do what ever necessay to do so.  Enough for now.