Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Swartz
I sympathize with part of this point of view. It's sure a heck of a lot easier to think we should just try to get along with other nations, but the fact of the matter is that public opinion worldwide is basically pacifistic on the subject of terrorism. I'm all for trying to have more effective diplomatic measures, but the fact of the matter is that due to economic self-interest and the misguided views of their own constitutents those nations which are sometimes comically referred to as our 'allies' are not interested in meaningful action against terrorism in the long-term. It's the world we live in, and in that world we can either act or we can surrender to a future where people like OBL can blackmail us with nuclear threats.
Terrorism is by its very nature the enemy of civilization, and in dealing with nations who refuse to recognize that there is only so far that diplomacy is going to be able to go. There is a fundamental difference of worldview. If we act in an appropriately aggressive way to stamp out terrorism we are going to make a lot of enemies. The question is whether that is an appropriate thing to do and whether or not it is better than the alternative -- I say yes on both counts simply because I've never heard any reasonable alternative(and this is an important enough issue that I considered voting for Kerry in '04, but couldn't because of what I saw as the absolute bankruptcy of his position on the matter).
As has been mentioned there have been failures of execution. The Iraq War was sold horribly, and for some of the wrong reasons. It was executed even worse in some aspects after the initial invasion. As a result we have a mess, but not IMO a worse mess than we would have had if we hadn't done it to begin with and certainly not a worse mess than hiding in America and pretending a modern free society can depend on the oceans to protect us.
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the motherfuckin iraq war wasn't about motherfucking terrorism. Saddam was as much an enemy of muslim fundamentalists like bin ladin as we are. Either you are overlooking this for the sake of making your point, or you are TBH (and there's not really a way to sugarcoat this so I apologize in advance - it's just one of those things that really push my buttons) ignorant.