Keerist, I have been wasting a lot of time feeding the trolls down there. Seems I riled a couple of them.
I want to make some of my feelings a little more clear for those of you that don’t have any inclination to wade through all the invective and personal insults. I would like to post (as a regular entry) the response I made to some of the comments that I received. It comes in response to being told “you’d better move to Europe. ” and “I honestly think that you’d rather believe ANYONE than any person associated with this country.”
My response follows:
Well, folks, there you have it.
A little blast from the past- from the Alien and Sedition Acts of the Adams Presidency through the “Love it or Leave it” 1960s- When “patriots” get their backs up, it comes down to a simple equation: dissent=treason.
I realize that there are a very small minority of us that are opposed to pre-emptive wars on shaky pretexts, but I feel that history will judge us kindly. I have always felt that the WMD issue had a very Gulf of Tonkin smell to it. I am not going to get into the specious argument that Saddam was or was not worthy of a commitment of billions of dollars men of materiel to depose him. We have covered that, ad infinitum, in other places.
I am not anti-American. I am not surprised to find myself having to defend myself from the charge, however. Those who advocate peace and question the motives of those who would make war are always called “coward” and “traitor.” If I am to be branded as such because I (along with most of the population of Canada, the UK, and the rest of the civilized world) advocate for clear-headed and fair policies where cruise missles and massive civilian casualties are involved, then I wear the title proudly.
I feel like we are currently a country in peril of losing its moral mandate in the world. We have squandered the good will of our allies in favor of inspiring terror in those we oppose. My fear is that, in the end, it will avail us nothing.
Our fight, as the wealthiest nation on earth, should be against poverty, disease, racism, injustice and illiteracy around the world and right here within our own borders. We should be exporting peace and prosperity and leading the world in the measured use of force, since we are one of the handful of nations well-armed enough to have that luxury.
Instead, the face that we are showing the world is that of a hair-trigger oligarchy. You think that anti-American rhetoric is at a high water mark now? If we continue to squander our name on unilateral (B)bush wars, the shouting is going to rise in tenor until it is deafening.”
Please feel free to comment either way, as it seems to get some folks REAL excited.