It is all one War Loloma. And I did answer without referancing your post or your name. I guess it isn't hard to guess where the sentiments were directed though. Still, my mesage was more how the negitive comments are interpretted from our end. I respect that you were just saying your point of view and never meant offense. That is why I didn't referance your post. I just wish people would be more sensitive to how their comments come across. It is a terrible war, and not one that we asked to fight. But it is a justified war, and the doubt shown by many in our culture is truely disheartening. I understand the need to deny that there are people out there that hate us. I understand the resistance to believe that there are people who will never accept that we have rights. But they are out there, and your Military is trying it's best to keep you safe. So please, unless you can prove that someone is pulling those strings and causing this war, respect those that care enough to fight.
Zipperhead, I appreciate where you're coming from and I hope you know this isn't meant as any criticism of the people in the military. They are brave men and women who lay their lives on the line and I have absolutely no doubt that their motives are to protect us and I respect that tremendously. However, I don't think it's fair to invoke the fallen soldiers in an effort to prevent honest debate and intimidate people (I don't think this is what you were trying to do, but, it ends up having that effect) and prevent them from stating their opposition to what the powers that be (and these are civilian authorities, and, sadly, in many cases, heavily tied in with business entities) are doing with these wars (ie Iraq and Afghanistan).
In terms of why people attacked the US, I think we have to look at the root causes, as with any conflict. Therefore, I respectfully disagree that it's almost irrelevant why "they hate us." The West, primarily the former colonial powers have a long history of meddling in the Middle East and elsewhere. Does that justify what those idiots did on 9/11? Of course not. However, if we want to move on and have a better world, we need to honestly address the issues and not simply accept the sh*t we were fed that "they" hate our rights. I mean, sure, you can put it that way, if you take "our rights" to mean "our rights" to shit on everyone else and take whatever we want so that we can live a certain lifestyle while people in those places get poorer and poorer etc.
I agree that the initial response and attack on Afghanistan was justified. However, it seemed pretty clear that eventually it ceased being about that. And while you'r eright that Afghanistan itself does not have oil, there is a central Asian pipeline that is indeed supposed to go through there. It is also no coincidence that Hamid Karzai was an oil exec. As for Iraq, that war is completely, 100% not justified, not to mention illegal.
This is in response to other posts re African population boom and "not understanding their logic"...There are, of course, numerous reasons but one of the root problems here, too, is colonialism. These are results of imposing a certain religion on the local populations etc...
