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wPuri sermonis amator |
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Politics and Pop Culture.
And occasionally informative, amusing, or bizzare non sequiturs.
Matt's in charge here, others can post.
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wSunday, March 09, 2003 |
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Andy's Wrong, Again
Why is the U.S. being hamstrung by the U.N.? Replace "U.S." with "Iraq" in that sentence and it makes about as much sense. We must violate the U.N. to punish those who violate the U.N.! If the U.N. does not matter, than we have absolutely zero justification for going to war with Iraq, as they do not threaten us in any way. I also challenge your seemingly blind acceptance of the Bush administration's doctrine of preemptive war.
If you're not for going to war right now with guns a blazing, then when exactly did you want to declare war on a country that doesn't threaten us and kill thousands of their innocent civilians? Do we do this before or after North Korea nukes Los Angeles?
As far as the Al Samoud missiles you refer to, they were included in the weapons declaration that the Iraqis gave the U.N. There was some disagreement over the range of the missles, and Iraq is destroying them currently.
As far as Iraq's nuclear program goes, did you know that evidence the U.S. says Iraq was trying to buy Nuclear material from Niger in 1999 was faked? I still have yet to see any evidence that Iraq has an active nuclear program. And I have yet to see any ties between terrorists and Iraq‘s government. You can't just say "He's a bad bad man, he'll sell nonexistent material through a nonexistent arrangement with radical Muslim terrorist groups who have regularly called for his death." without proof of any of that and expect me to buy it. I'm not asking for every little bit of information we have - I'm asking for any evidence at all. And considering that a large portion of the evidence the administration has provided us has been found to be faked, plagiarized, or outdated
The Liberal Media was ranting for weeks when it was revealed that much of Colin Powell's report to the U.N. was plagiarized from a decade old college term paper. Oh wait, no they weren't. Silly me. And the outrage heard on every one of those Liberal News Networks when it was revealed that Bush cited a nonexistent report from the IAEA in an attempt to deceive the American people about Iraq's nuclear program was deafening. Oh wait, no it wasn't. The President lies to the American people, gets caught, and no one says a damn thing.
And your assertion that some people are "nuts" and would sell their souls to get at America strikes me as more than a little naive? Why does Osama (remember him?) hate America? According to President Chimp it was because they hate our "freedom" (well, before he stopped talking about him). Never did the administration mention that Osama has repeatedly listed his grievances against our government - never mentioning "freedom" but rather complaining about troops stationed in the Holy Land helping to prop up the corrupt Saudi government. While I might accept the notion that all religious people are crazy, these people do have real complaints that rightly or wrongly inspire them to act against us. To simply label them as "nuts" stops any real analysis of the genesis of these threats and how we can properly deal with them.
I'm not sure what to make of your somewhat out of place paean to Democracy. I'm pretty sure I call up my elected leaders and let ‘em know how I feel about things more than most. You know, Kit Bond never sends me any letters. I let him know how I felt about genetically modified food, how I felt about the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (wait, I think I might've gotten an e-mail back about that one), and how I feel about war in Iraq (a couple of times) but the bastard ignores me. Oh, and I almost got arrested protesting outside his office a couple of years ago. And I haven't missed a general election since I turned 18. So I think I've got some bona fides regarding civic involvement in a functioning democracy.
But I also don't think it's enough. As easy as it is to parrot back what they teach you in school about how change occurs in this country, it isn't that simple. Or did you think the Civil Rights movement would've succeeded without protest? Don't you think the million people who got together in Hyde Park have something to do with Tony Blair's commitment to getting a second U.N. resolution?
And as I wrote that last sentence, For What It's Worth (by Buffalo Springfield) came on the radio:There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Of course, that smirking chimp in the Whitehouse dismisses protests as "Focus Groups", ignores my phone calls, and lies to the American people every chance he gets. Maybe it'd do better if you gave him a civics lesson. I'm certainly planning to, but that little lesson comes in November 2004.
posted by
Matthew Carroll-Schmidt at 1:25 PM
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