I always felt Iraq was a huge mistake but reading the news lately, I'm see more and more that unfortunately, I will NOT be proven wrong.
It's when I read stories like this that I become truly incensed
President Bush and Co. are going to go down in history as the worst leadership this country has ever experienced. I don't care what you think of me for saying that. I have family leaving to fight in Iraq right now, so don't even dream of saying I don't support the troops. Baloney. I support my ass off for the troops. That's what terrifies me, Bush is evil, and he's responsible for the troops.
9/11 was five years ago and if anything our country's future is more dire than ever. Iraq is on the verge of civil war according to the U.N. (and also according to several of our own top military leaders), we've lost huge chunks of Afghanistan to Taliban rule which has come back with a vengeance. AND we have impending crisis' to deal with in Iran and other middle eastern areas.
And where have our tax dollars gone? Well if you read the highlighted story above, you already know. Our great American nation, boasting of superior morals (America Good, terrorists evil-doers) has been sending suspected terrorists out of our country on jets to be tortured in the comfort of a third world country not bound by our inconvenient American laws that people have a right to a fair trial and counsel.
"A Muslim Canadian citizen, Maher Arar was detained in the U.S. in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found."
Sick thing is, our government is basically acting like, "Hey whoops, sorry buddy, guess you slipped through the system." Arar filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, but the case was dismissed by a judge citing "national security" issues.
Oh. My. God. I feel violently ill and embarrassed to be an American. And I shouldn't be!! The majority of citizens in this great country have been lied to. We are proud that we live in a country of democracy, we say let freedom ring. Our soldiers have been fighting on the front lines because they want to help free oppressed people. They're willing to die so that the world is safer for everyone. And yet, this whole time, our leaders are no better than Saddam. Worse when you think about. Saddam was a bastard, but at least he put it right out there that he was torturing and killing people. Our leaders are cowards. They put people on planes and send them to Syria. That way we can torture them without feeling quite so bad. It's doesnt' mean that we use torture if we do it in another country, right? Torturing doesn't count in Syria.
Currently a senior at my college, I'm taking a class on Islam. It's been very informative and a helpful religion to understand in this day in age. On September 11, our professor had us all stop and simply discuss the anniversary. One girl in my class was in school in Switzerland at the time, she said the next day kids at her school basically said, "Well America deserved it."
That thought made me ill. How could anyone say that innocent people deserved this? That any country deserved this?
Because America has a disgusting, dark underbelly that hides from us. We're fighting a war that we claim is about freeing the oppressed but we're doing nothing to help the teachers in Afghanistan who are murdered every day because they dare to teach women. Think people! If our motives were about ending oppression and saving the world, our asses would be in Darfur right now.
Our loved ones are in harms way because of a lie and our embarrassing government is responsible for the destruction of Iraq. To be sure it was "f-ed" up to begin with but at least it was a secular state. Now, it'll likely fall to the hands of extreme, radical Islam. Women, in other words are likely screwed. I don't say that as a diss on normal Islam, but take a look at radical, violent, distorted Islam had done to women under the Taliban.
President Bush DARED to use his September 11th address to try and pep us up for this war. He dared to use that solemn day to try and win support for this botch job of monumental proportions. Meanwhile Cheney was sweating up a storm everywhere claiming that anyone who questions the president or the war would help our enemies. BULLSHIT DICK. You help our enemies. You help bring more terrorists to the fold. All they have to do to recruit is go out and say, "Look what America has done! They are an evil western empire! They started a war, they took our Muslim brothers and sisters and tortured them. Evil infidels."
And I'm sorry, if Bush is going to fly people off and torture them for months on end, then he is an infidel!! This isn't a radical thought. It fits our country's definition. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says that "Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
By the way, if my friends find that CIA agents have dragged me off for "questioning," call Syria. That might be where I'll be.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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3 comments:
i saw a button today that reminded me of you. it said, "Republicans want live babies so they can grow up to be dead soldiers."
i see responses like this a lot and i completely disagree on where you are coming from. yes, the main reason given for invading iraq was wrong, but that doesn't dismiss the smaller reasons.
somehow the torture and killing of thousands of iraqis gets swept under the rug when the iraq war gets brought up. it's hypocritical that all these people are up in arms about protecting the rights of terrorists, when they weren't saying a thing about the torture and killing of thousands in iraq.
so many people look for something and someone to blame for the problems in the iraq war and it all falls on bush's head. why? because he's the easiest to blame. it's too much work to actually look at the problem and blame the terrorists and the extremists. they're the ones causing the potential civil war in iraq, not the u.s. government.
democrats love using quotes by historic figures to prove their points... well how about "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise." - winston churchill.
in the age of technology and constant surveillance, people seem to think that everything in life, especially war, is predictable and controllable. just because you can hit with a missile launched from a ship 300 miles away doesn't mean you can know beforehand how things are going to play out.
should the bush administration be held responsible for the bad things that happened in iraq? yes, but should they be blamed? no, that should fall on the terrorists and extremists who are the ones actually trying to suppress a people.
people act like the united states went into this with shady plans and a goal to cause upheaval throughout the middle east. our country had great motives, but a bunch of radical muslims got in the way. don't blame in on the government, blame it on the muslims who are out daily killing people and trying to restrict freedom.
god forbid someone takes the blame they're putting on the government for holding TERRORISTS in prison and puts it on the people who are KILLING civilians.
Cory,
I didn’t say anything about protecting the rights of terrorists. Terrorists should be brought to justice. The story I referenced was about a man, regular average Joe citizen NOT a terrorist who was flown to another country by the US and tortured. He was not a terrorist and we stripped him of all his human rights and imprisoned him for ten months. Torturing him… not giving him a chance to talk to his family, seek counsel or defend himself.
That is not right.
When people do this they have to admit that it was wrong! They can’t hide behind “the greater good” – oh look at Saddam, he hurt way more people. Yes, that may be so. But human life is human life. Just because he tortured 10 and we tortured 1 doesn’t make it any less wrong when we do it.
Our country believes (or it used to) that you don’t bring someone to justice or solve problems using torture.
I don’t blame Bush because he’s the easiest. I blame him because he’s responsible. He, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, anyone in positions of power. Hell, we should blame ourselves. We look the other way when we hear things like this. We say yes to the patriot act. We’re all responsible but Bush more than anyone. He is the leader of this country and responsible for our policy in dealing with potential terrorists. Or in this case, a man wrongly accused of committing terrorist acts.
Terrorists are ultimately responsible for the havoc, bloodshed and sorrow they create but so are we. America invaded a country based on a lie. America went to war and because of it a country is war torn and unstable. Of course we want to do the right thing by these people. But in the meantime our bad policies and bad decisions have meant the loss of Afghanistan, a country whose volatile history with radical extremist Islam has proved a threat to us. Women in Afghanistan (who were a rallying cry for why we should go to war: “Look how the Taliban treats women) have been forgotten.
Our war was not well planned. There was no exit strategy and we stretched ourselves too thin going into Iraq when we had no basis for it. Osama is dead or still at large (we have no idea because we didn’t send enough people after him). The Taliban is coming back because we haven’t had enough success in Afghanistan.
Yes terrorists kill civilians. Yes Saddam tortured his own people. He was a terrible man. But we have killed civilians too—not maliciously, but our war has done it yes. And if we had approached Iraq different perhaps we could have made a real difference.
If this were really about saving innocent people from death, torture etc, why aren’t we in the Congo right now--- systematic rapes, murders, genocide … it’s all happening there. Not to mention Darfur.
Bush and Co. had a particular reason for going after Iraq. And they lied to get us there. Our friends are dying. Ask yourself why? And really ask yourself, is there a better way?
And most of all question whether or not American Values says it’s okay to take a man, fly him thousands of miles from his family, without any chance to defend himself and torture him for 10 months.
It’s not right. It will never be right. America can’t fight terrorism with terrorist acts.
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