I hate to burst your bubble, but I've never met (or read the blogging of) a single conservative who believed any of these "myths". The article, while interesting, is not an accurate description of what conservatives want out of a national security policy. What we want is to unite the work in a global effort to stop those people who hate our very existence - but not by losing the very qualities that they hate.
I'll highlight the ones the really stick out to me:
6) We can go it alone! This is completely wrong - we need our allies help to fight the terrorists. And our efforts are succeeding! Just look at Iraq! We'll probably be handing complete control of the country back to the Iraqis next year.
7) Negotiating with Dictators doesn't work Negotiating only works when both parties come to the table in good faith. The dictators of North Korea, Iran and Cuba desire the destruction of America and have lied to us (and the UN) before.
10) We must give up our civil liberties to win the war The full quote from Benjamin Franklin is this: They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
We can't expect to fight people who want to destroy our very way of life by continuing to live as we always have. But that does not give the gov't carte blanche to do whatever they wish.
Not sure if there was a miscommunication, because... well, I agree with everything you just said, and I thought I had made those points clear?
You say these myths aren't what conservatives think - and this may be true for your every-day American. But there are many very vocal (although definitely not the majority) conservatives - most of whom are installed in power within our government - who align with an extreme neo-conservative agenda that parrots the aforementioned myths over and over again.
Bush and co. have abandonded international treaties - not the acts of people who believe they need allies in a fight. Those who wish to meet with and negotiate with foreign leaders have been criticized - even vilified - by these people as weak and have even gone so far as to question their patriotism. Finally, the Bush administration has shown again and again that they have absolutely no respect for the constitution. They've ballooned the President's powers way beyond what they should be, eliminating checks and balances in our government system. And does habeus corpus ring a bell? Torture? What about ILLEGAL wire-tapping? The government has no right to hold people without telling them their charges. We should never torture people in the name of interrogation - that's why we tried those in Vietnam for war crimes. And the government certainly has not "just cause" that justifies monitoring the calls of millions of innocent Americans.
I am sure you don't agree with the things these people have done, but they are responsible for it, and they continue to wear the conservative label - and do so proudly, as if they represent the entirety of America. Those are the people targetted in these myths.
I hate to burst your bubble, but I've never met (or read the blogging of) a single conservative who believed any of these "myths". The article, while interesting, is not an accurate description of what conservatives want out of a national security policy. What we want is to unite the work in a global effort to stop those people who hate our very existence - but not by losing the very qualities that they hate.
I'll highlight the ones the really stick out to me:
6) We can go it alone!
This is completely wrong - we need our allies help to fight the terrorists. And our efforts are succeeding! Just look at Iraq! We'll probably be handing complete control of the country back to the Iraqis next year.
7) Negotiating with Dictators doesn't work
Negotiating only works when both parties come to the table in good faith. The dictators of North Korea, Iran and Cuba desire the destruction of America and have lied to us (and the UN) before.
10) We must give up our civil liberties to win the war
The full quote from Benjamin Franklin is this: They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
We can't expect to fight people who want to destroy our very way of life by continuing to live as we always have. But that does not give the gov't carte blanche to do whatever they wish.
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You say these myths aren't what conservatives think - and this may be true for your every-day American. But there are many very vocal (although definitely not the majority) conservatives - most of whom are installed in power within our government - who align with an extreme neo-conservative agenda that parrots the aforementioned myths over and over again.
Bush and co. have abandonded international treaties - not the acts of people who believe they need allies in a fight. Those who wish to meet with and negotiate with foreign leaders have been criticized - even vilified - by these people as weak and have even gone so far as to question their patriotism. Finally, the Bush administration has shown again and again that they have absolutely no respect for the constitution. They've ballooned the President's powers way beyond what they should be, eliminating checks and balances in our government system. And does habeus corpus ring a bell? Torture? What about ILLEGAL wire-tapping? The government has no right to hold people without telling them their charges. We should never torture people in the name of interrogation - that's why we tried those in Vietnam for war crimes. And the government certainly has not "just cause" that justifies monitoring the calls of millions of innocent Americans.
I am sure you don't agree with the things these people have done, but they are responsible for it, and they continue to wear the conservative label - and do so proudly, as if they represent the entirety of America. Those are the people targetted in these myths.
No bubble was burst. <3
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