WendyCal

If the mother was a friend of mine, i would say something. (And you Know i would! )

But, this isn't an instance of making some sort of choice between our children.

It's a matter of someone asking for help.

i know y'all won't like this much, but Jesus told us that He wanted mercy, not sacrifice. You don't really give up anything when you show mercy to others ~ whatever it is you are 'out,' it really doesn't mean much in the big scheme of things.

The Unfan

When did they ask for help? Also please keep Jesus out of political discussion. Mixing religion and politics is just absurd.

jibber

when exactly did the iraqi people ask for the help of the united states? there's a huge difference between a country going in and using military force to break up the rule of a country and someone going in as a peacekeeping force after being requested.

The american civil was was just that, a civil war. the war in iraq is a completely different situation. The closest thing the country had to a civil war before the american invasion was the unsettlement between the kurdish people and the iraqi government. Yes there were flare-ups, yes there was fighting, but there was no cry for help from either side.

The war in iraq wasn't a humanitarian effort. It wasn't started for the good of the iraqi people. Not even at the the start was there any mention of that, it was started on the false accusations of iraq having weapons of mass destruction (and no, do NOT post that article you posted before, as it has already been proven to be completely and utterly false), and on the false accusations that al-queda was operating in iraq. There was no presence of al-queda before the war, and yet there was afterwards after the US thoroughly destroyed the infrastructure and the government of iraq and allowed al queda an in to the country.

America did not "liberate" the iraqi people. They are living with just as much if not more terror than they were under hussein's regime, the security situation is just as unstable as before, and what's more, the whole conflict has unearthed and ignited an actual civil war between sunni and shiite muslims that was not under way before the invasion as hussein (a shiite).

So I guess NOW there could be a slight parallel between the american civil war and the war in iraq, now that the bush administration effectively started a civil war in the country.

__________________
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do -- especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Your toughest competitor lives in your head. Some days his name is fear, or pain, or gravity. Stomp his ass.

HOOKED ON THE WHITE POWDER

Predator

You're god damn right I think its MY country's responsibility to end oppression throughout the world.

So you notice that your neighbor is beating the shit out of his kid every night. The kid comes up with new bruises and cuts every day. Do you completely ignore that anything is going on or do you do something to stop it? Nice leading by the way. Come up with a reasonable scenario and I'll give you a reasonable answer.

__________________

The answer is hidden in plain view.

jibber

right, and carpet bombing the country shows such a great degree of mercy.

__________________
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do -- especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Your toughest competitor lives in your head. Some days his name is fear, or pain, or gravity. Stomp his ass.

HOOKED ON THE WHITE POWDER

WendyCal

Oh, wow.

Oops.

i've been trying to talk to actual Iraqi folks, online, to find out anything, from the horse's mouth, so to speak, but the closest i've come is a guy that is some sort of special forces that has been on the ground there for a while. Anyway, the story i'm getting from him is that we are wanted and needed ~ those folks don't want some insane dictator to mug, murder and molest them. They want a choice, too.

Or is all that just out in left field, for now?

jibber

well, if we're relating the scenario to the iraq war, it depends how much money the kid being beaten up is willing to give you. If it's one of those poor kids who has nothing to offer you in return, you leave it be. If the kid somehow has an independent source of wealth or other could offer some sort of other personal gain, then go in with guns blazing!

__________________
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do -- especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Your toughest competitor lives in your head. Some days his name is fear, or pain, or gravity. Stomp his ass.

HOOKED ON THE WHITE POWDER

Predator

Excuse me? Since when is the United States getting any compensation for our actions in Iraq?

__________________

The answer is hidden in plain view.

WendyCal

And YOU? i stand behind EVERYTHING you've said, so far!

jibber

Of course they want a choice, but do you really think that the way the US went about this helped anything at all? The iraqi people are no better off now than they had been before. They're in the midst of a civil war at the moment, people are dying at a higher rate than they were before. How is the current situation any better?

The Bush administration fabricated reasons to go into iraq. They defied a the UN to go to war with a country unprovoked. Instead of bombing the **** out of the country to "help" them, maybe other lines of diplomacy should have been tried.

__________________
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do -- especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Your toughest competitor lives in your head. Some days his name is fear, or pain, or gravity. Stomp his ass.

HOOKED ON THE WHITE POWDER