Your intellectual arguments are fine for a tavern or over a nice dinner. In reality, they will get you killed. It's called pre-emption. The earlier you excise the cancer, the less problems you will have down the road. Oh...and...Okie is right too.
Originally posted by Sabanfan: Well, there is a lot of truth to that. It is much easier to have these types of discussions if you are in a position of safety. Which makes me again ask what threat is Iran to the United States? They are incapable of threatening us militarily. If Israel is the country that is being threatened then let them deal with it. The IDF is well qualified and has an excellent track record. I'd like to see the odds in Vegas on the IDF against Iran. I feel sure they would be heavily favored. I cannot understand why Americans are so content to have their soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East. We are not from there and unless we intend to colonize the place we will not stay there. Afghanistan has never been conquered. Not by the British, not by the Russians and not by us. As soon as we withdraw support for Kharzai he is toast. The Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves over American foreign policy now. Don't you remember "avoiding foreign entanglements"? And as far as pre-emtion....this is a very dangerous precedent to set. Which countries are allowed to follow this policy? Are the Chinese allowed to pre-empt Taiwans independence? How about Russia and Georgia? If everyone would simply stay within their borders there would be no problems. That goes for the US military as well. This is why international law is supposed to condemn "wars of aggression". If you allow countries to start following the concept of pre-emptive wars we are in for a very rough ride.
You are terribly naive. Nobody is "content" to have American troops in harms way. We are not trying to conquer Afghanistan either. We are trying to wipe out a group that will stop at nothing to kill as many of us as they can. You cannot put a fence around America and assume if we MYOB then everyone else will too. There are people plotting to cause mass casualties right here, as we speak. Vigilance, not ignorance, is what's called for. And, the founding fathers ARE spinning in their graves. But not for the reasons you cite.
Originally posted by Sabanfan: . Well, if I am naive then please enlighten me as to why Canada is not threatened by terrorists? Or Switzerland? Or Brazil or whatever other Western country you want to pick that is NOT INVOLVED IN MIDDLE EASTERN POLITICS. None of the countries is threatened because they have no axe to grind in the Middle East. They are not mistreating Muslims. You cannot find one example of random, meaningless terrorist attacks because even the most radical human beings don't run around attacking people without some motive. The motive is that we are in their backyard with our military. Would you be happy if the Russians were in Texas? Or the Chinese were running Seattle? Governments don't resort to conflict because of idealogical conflicts they do so because of conflicting national interest and relative positions of power. Muslim countries can get along fine with Western democracies as well as Communist countries or whoever.
Bengal most "conservatives" here belong to the Neo-Con right wing party helping Cheney war mongering where small groups of people have no motives and threaten the US safety. Not to mention want to parade around the world enforcing some set of morals they don't even abide by.
lets say rex and fla are right and that it is our policies that make islamists hate us. big bad wolf us stepped on their toes. so we apologize, leave the mid-east completely, and isolate ourselves here at home. rex and fla, do you really think the problem goes away and we are safe? hell no we arent. WHATEVER the reason, whether its their religion that makes them hate us and our ways, or our policies, they are gonna keep coming after us no matter what we do from here on out. we could up and leave, turn our back on everything that is middle east related, and we would still have be watcing our backs for the next shoe bomb. the next sleeper cell going off. the next (god forbid) twin towers. we have no choice but to try to prevent them from bombing our asses as they happily blow theirs to what they think is allah and their awaiting virgins. and if you think ahmennutjob in iran wouldnt give nuclear materials to al qaeda just as fast as to hezbollah, if it was for a dirty bomb with our name on it, may god/allah/the flying spaghetti monster have mercy on you. edit: and thank you sf.
that is my belief. and it stems from my belief that their religion IS what makes them hate us. what is your evidence they wont? and let me ask my own question. lets say i am correct with my belief and another 9/11 or a dirty bomb happens even if we have become isolationists. what will your reaction be?
