And how you seem to think lying about your fellow soldiers is informing the citizenry is beyond me. Contrary to the white wash history the Anti war movement was never very strong in Vietnam. Even among Americans who wanted to leave vietnam, most wanted to get out of it honorably like Nixon proposed. And then of course The Dems stopped support for South Vietnam which brought millions of people to the grave in Southeast Asia. Kerry and his friends have all those death on their hands. Its not something I would want.
I don't know anything about the winter soldier report. I will find out more. I don't get angry when someone makes me question things logically.
Some of the members who have posted replies need to follow along. You're arguing against points that I never made.
First, Johnson had arranged a peace plan to get out of Vietnam honorably at the end of his adm. It was sabbotaged by Kissinger (who was already working in the State Dept.) on Nixon's behalf. I really don't know how the power hungry Kissinger can sleep at night. To blame the protestors for the withdrawl after that is just trite.
The Vietnam War was awful for all sides involved. I also beleive that the Vietnam Vets were treated horribly by many Americans. They served our country and should have been given respect.
The problem with the Vietnam War was that America was fighting in a dubious position. On one hand we wanted to stop the Communist spread in SE Asia which I do understand. On the other hand, we were afraid to go in and obliterate North Vietnam for fear that China and the USSR would retaliate and start WWIII.
Consquently, there was no clear plan on our part. This became apparent to many Americans and US soldiers.
You have argued that sometimes it is necessary to support regimes that we do not like to further our US causes. I have never said that we don't have to pick and choose our battles wisely or that war is never necessary. I was pointing out that you had stated that we were out building free nations and then turned around and said that we sometimes have to act in our own best interests. You can't have it both ways. (For those of you who posted replies other tha Avatar, try to follow along. You're taking illogical leaps and getting all fired up over arguments that I never made. Take some prozac or something!)
I do not beleive that any US soldier should be killed or wounded in a war for a country(Iraq) where its own people don't want us there.
Yes, some do, but I don't see it being the majority. I don't see
how anyone can claim that an American who doesn't want American soldiers to die in Iraq as being anti-American or not supporting the troops. Again, why iraq? If we are doing the compassionate thing, why didn't we invade a country where its citizens are suffering far more than the Iraqi citizens? You also stated that we should invade every country with Totalitarian Regimes. (By the way, I don't know of too many dictators who are not totalitarian.) So, we're to send our soldiers around the world to die and bankrupt the country on a crusade that we can't possibly accomplish. Now who's living in a fantasy utopia? How you can say that not advocating war against Iraq is supporting Saddam is beyond me. Do you really think that if Iraq was not in the Middle East and didn't have huge oil reserves that we would be there?
We go on ignoring the problems here at home and spend hundreds of billions on Iraq. Where is your compassion for the starving children and the working poor in the US? Wouldn't it make more sense to deal with some of our domestic problems?
We have a very unstable society as indicated by our crime rate and divorce rate. The biggest threat to the US is from within. Other industrialized nations do not have the unstable society that we have, yet we refuse to look at some of their solutions or do anything at all. I fear that it is the conservative refusal to move forward and make changes that will destroy our great nation.
By the way, the word "communism" keeps being bantered around. I've never advocated communism and never will.
I will say that communism, and unbridled capitalism all lead to the same thing: all of the power and the wealth in the hands of the very few. I have not seen much compassion demonstrated on the part of President Bush towards the average American. Don't give me the 9-11 attack. He acted to cover the large corporations' rear ends not for the people. I'm sure some of you think that I lack respect for George W. because he is a Republican. You're wrong. I could have been happy with John McCain as President because I beleive he is an honest man who would have tried his best to do the right things for America. He would have been the Republican nominee, if the rich powers that be in the Republican Party had not jumped in and ran their puppet George W. Yes, I see him as a self-serving detached president. Cheney and Rove run the show while Dubya works short days and goes on lengthy vacations. He was entrusted with the awsome responsibilty of overseeing our nation and he doesn't even care enough to be actively involved. Yes, I see him as evil. Not because he is a conservative, but because he just doesn't care about America enough to even try to do his job.
Just as when Reagan was in office, we have no true president. Others around him call the shots. This is scary to me. I didn't agree with many of the things that Pres. George, Sr. Bush did, but I could respect him for actually being the president. Some of you just blindly follow as his adm. leads us farther down the path to destruction.
By the way, I also hear conservatives wanting tax cuts. Someone has got to pay for the war in Iraq sooner or later. Dubya can give tax cuts and run up the deficit, but sooner or later we are all going to be paying for it. Our economy is awful and our society unstable and yet too many refuse to admit it let alone try to address the issues. No, I don't have all of the answers, but some Christian compassion for one another as US citizens would be a great place to start.
If anyone wants to post an intelligent logical reply, I welcome it. Maybe I'll even learn something. For those of you who can only get angry and jump to rediculous conclusions: GROW UP! Go read some history books and then go to church.
