I get so irked when I hear this from people. But then again, I’m not the most worldly man around. Is there something I’m missing here? Is my freedom really in danger from Iraq?
Nope. Is not and never was. For that matter, neither is Bin Laden and friends; they don’t have the power. The actual danger to what freedoms Americans have is in the White House and Congress.
Dude, the freedom of Americans in the respect that we could potentially have been defeated or conquered resulting in a change of type of government wasn’t even threatened in World War II. It is what is known as a rhetorical device. The concept is sound, though, because why else would you go to war but for some sort of national emergency?
See, if you think that the world is all about the United States, then foreign intervention has never been necessary. We could be as closed or as insular a society as China or North Korea. But instead we chose to do business with the world, and therefore we have a certain responsibility to it. In that respect, by waving the flag and protecting our interests and others’ interests worldwide we are indeed protecting your freedoms, along with the freedom of billions of others. For instance: do you doubt that without us South Korea and Taiwan would be distant memories? Have you benefited from the existence of Taiwan and South Korea? Has our relationship with those two countries made your life better? Absolutely. Is that not more or less the same thing as fighting for your freedoms? After all, what good are freedoms without the means to exercise them?
But anyway, I agree that it gets annoying after a while. It’s tough to find the motivation to fight for some non-specific “freedom”. We are very much a goal-oriented society, and we have no idea what the goal is anymore, if we ever did.
Okay. Sounds like “freedom” is a bit overused. How do you feel about “liberty” or “our american way of life?”
Again, Osama and his buds never had the power to harm those; we are doing far more damage to ourselves. “We have met the enemy, and he is us !”
Unfortuanetly, it might be now. It wasn’t before we invaded, but they don’t like to talk about that…
I think this is an often forgotten aspect of the debate. Korea called upon its allies to help them defend themselves from communist aggression, we answered their call, now they send troops to Iraq even though almost everyone in the country (including the government) thinks its stupid because we answered their call (that and the fact that we are their largest export market and they cannot risk pissing us off). Kuwait called upon the world to help them expel Iraqi invaders, we answered their call and nowthey support us even though we do things that deeply offend many of their citizens. Perhaps there is some merit to their theories about spreading democracy abroad by force, maybe they have a point about how the spread of democracy will reduce the level of terrorist activities worldwide as people are able to express themselves through the democratic process. However, we never got to have that debate because this adminstration felt it was easier to sell Saddam hussein=9/11 and Saddam Hussein is about to give Nukes to Osama bin Laden than it was to sell people on the idea that we should divert our resources from Afghanistan to pursue a speculative theory about regime change and creating democracy abroad.
“Defense of our freedoms” in this context closely resembles Ambrose Bierce’s definition of
Right. Making a little joke there. Looks like ya kinda missed it.
Yep. Air Jordan sweatshops have no doubt made life better for all of us. Including ten year olds working way below minimum wage while sniffing noxious fumes for ten/twelve hours a day in order to make your life “better.”
USA! USA!
Indeed. All right-thinking folks insist we should revert to the days when the average American only had two pairs of shoes, and all those slitty-eyed ten year olds were working fourteen-hour days on the farm for nothing more than the bare minimum amount of calories needed to keep them alive.
Well, that and the danger of losing the freedom to not get blown up.
Idiot. :rolleyes:
I’m more likely to get hurt or killed by the American “War of Drugs” or “War on Terror” than blown up by a terrorist. For that matter, I’m more likely to die in a car crash or random crime. Terrorism is a trivial threat; not worth giving up a single fredom over. I have zero fear of terrorism; the fact that so many Americans have panicked over terrorism just shows how many Americans are stupid and cowardly.
Not to mention that the war in Iraq has nothing with stopping terrorism; if anything it encourages it.
No, the troops in Iraq are fighting to avenge those who terrorized our country on September 11, 2001.
No, wait…They are fighting to stop terrorism in Iraq.
See…Now they are fighting to establish Democracy in Iraq so that people will live under a government that doesn’t intrude into their personal lives.
No…They are fighting to establish a Democracy in Iraq that will have a fair and open justice system
Well, you know, with no torture…
I’ll get back to you…
It’s about as true as that other eyeroller, “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
Actually, it’s “truth, justice, and the American way”. That’s why Superman fights.
If it’s good enough for him, then me too.
Seriously, it’s way easier to get people to fight over a myth than reality. Governments understand this. That’s why they are always creating new myths.
The British troops are in Iraq because we were assured that Iraq had WMD’s and could hit British bases within 45 minutes. Have they been found yet? :rolleyes:
If anyone thinks this war has anything to do with ‘democratic reedom’, perhaps they could check when Bush is going to rescue the Nobel prize-winning democratically-elected leader in Burma from a military dictatorship. Or not.
I am pretty sure that they did not have ten year olds working in sweatshops in Korea or Taiwan anytime in the last 20. They take their children’s education far more seriously than we do.