it IS OUR FAULT that the government/media has such a hold on us,
Yup. We did it to ourselves. I do believe that the government tries to act in our best interests, but sometimes those interests lead to dependance on government programs when we should be more self-reliant.
And please guys, let's try to keep all of this as 'civil' as possible
Agreed. I'm not looking for a flame war.
I will say that I believe the 'vast majority' of freedoms which have been taken from us in one way or another were due to lies in one form or another
I know you were in a hurry, Stormbringer, but what freedoms have we lost? I think that this country has been very aware of the freedoms we have, and very vocal about restrictions on them. You'll probably bring up the Patriot Act. I think that is probably too restrictive, but at least there was a time limit on it. Are there other examples you can think of?
Radicals tend to function on the extremes of reactions and your posts tend to prove that quite well.
Maybe. Radicals tend to have strongly held views. The challenge, then, is to win their hearts and minds. Convince him, Folkewolfe, don't insult him. Play nice.
Were not evil, we are just fooled by the lies of Israeli innocence.
Where did this come from? But, if you want to start...
Israel is a created country, a result of the world's guilt after the Holocaust, I suppose. Fine. Does that mean the Arab world can destroy it because they don't like it?
Much of the Israeli military response over the years has been in direct response to threats, and their perceived strength has allowed them to continue to exist. I do think that they cause some of their own problems (as do we) and have killed innocent people (as have we), but look at their example. Apparently the Arab Muslim world respects military might. So our current show of force in Iraq
may actually be the right thing to do.
The minute you argue that Israel kills civilians I stop listening, for the same reason I think that our courts-martial of soldiers accused of "murder" are ridiculous. If a group of people (Shi' ites, Hamas, the Viet Cong, whoever)use civilian cover to perform destructive acts then
they have militarized the civilians, not the people who try to defend themselves. When Hamas put rocket launchers in civilian parking garages those garages became legitimate military targets, even if two kids were playing house there. We didn't make it a target, Hamas did.
But what I am in total disagreement with is a government that totally and egregiously flaunts it's rights,then my right to clear and open government is corrupted by as low a thing as blatant lies.
I will never trust that governments decisions with regard to any freedom I have, let alone restrictions of freedom it hides from the people until it's too late to argue
Oh, wow, I shouldn't assume. Marcus, are you talking about the US government or not?
Yes, I think the US (my) government tries to put a spin on issues, but that's how it works. The individual voters are expected to inform themselves as to what is going on. We are our own defense. Look at Watergate and the public response to Vietnam. Look at the current debate about Iraq. It's not perfect, but it works. I challenge you to show me a better system that is currently in operation in the world.
I don't ever trust the government, though. But I don't really trust anyone...but then, I'm an evil Republican!
Those rights we give up are not forfeited freely, but stolen by lies.
Is this the missing WMD argument?
I hope the west can reach out to the Muslim nations with the same compassion that we so eagerly flood upon Israel, It is surely a one isided war, no help for the "wicked"
We have compassion for Israel because we see them as always under attack. For that reason, we have little compassion for Iraq because we see them as the agressor.
Which is wrong. The agressor here are the Islamic extremists, not any national group. I think that we vented our national frustration on an available target who was threatening us, and we acted out of good intentions. But it may have been the wrong target.
I mean to say that what some muslims choose to do in response to their belief that the west is evil is what i don't like. Also to a much lesser extent, i dislike some of the things that our governments have chosen to do in response to our perception of evil muslims.
OK, that's clearer. So what is an appropriate response to evil?