The Political Ramblings of a Hate Monger
So here it is, the ever infamous opinions of Adam. Now the dangerous aspect of this is that everything is put out on paper, so my words can come back to haunt me. But seeing as I am one arrogant asshole, and believe I am 99.99997% correct about everything, this isn’t a fear
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The Patriot in and of itself is an excellent idea, but requires that you have full faith in your government. If this is the case, then there is no reason to believe that the powers given within it will be abused, and thus will only be used to strength and safen the country.
Since most people trust politicians as far as you can throw them, this causes a major problem, plus there are certainly issues with the Patriot Act that are slightly shady.
My take is this. I do not believe that the Patriot Act suspends our civil liberties, as is the current war drum being beat about it. Have you found yourself worried about your phone being tappen, the gov't secretly entering your home, or doing anything else? No, because they really have no reason to suspect myself or you. So if you have nothing to hide, then there is no cause for concern.
The aspect that I dislike the most about the Patriot Act is that is does open up clear cut guidelines for racial profiling. Now is this a suspension of civil rights? No, not in my eyes. If you are flying in an airport and are stopped, that is part of traveling in a post-9/11 world. Now the fact that the 9/11 hi-jackers were of middle east descent has opened up the are for this ethnicity to be stopped more frequently. I believe a former UD teacher, who was originally from Pakistan and traveled home only to be detained said it best. He wrote the school newspaper and said that while innocent, and only being questioned in addition to having the hastle, he was much happier that he was detained and they tried to figure out why as opposed to simply letting him pass. He had planned on some sort of intereference because of the issues, so took all paperwork he would need. He said a lot of ways and times that he would rather have experienced that own inconvenience in his life, as opposed to the feelings those on 9/11 had to feel had he not been who he is...so to speak.
So basically I think that the Patriot Act is fine in a war time setting, as this is needed to protect the country in times of war. But it should be suspended afterwards because it takes us one step closer to a militarism state, which is not my vision.
And on Iraq...no, it is not necessary to kill Iraqis, but it is a fact of war. I have to wonder myself though, if you know our bombs and troops are coming, and you already have nothing to begin with (which most did since Saddam with-held EVERYTHING they were supposed to be getting), why you wouldn't try to avoid the cities and attack areas as best as possible. While life loss is always unfortunate, I think the lives gained are equally critical. My cousin, God bless him, is over in the sand box right now...and everyday he is interacting with Iraqi kids (he says the Kurds are great people...very nice and welcoming), playing games with them, giving them toys and shoes. While lives were lost, the ability to impact lives positively is equally important, and there was no way of changing Iraq without that occurring. We could never have gotten Saddam without the invasion, and the unfortunate consequence of invasion is death.
And while I can understand the total pacifist stance, I also recognize that there are some things which war is necessary for. After all, it has only ended slavery, stops facisim and the spread of communism, and ended the Holocaust....so for all the atrocities of it, as much good can be returned....it is just a matter of how we learn from what was done and how it was conducted. The fine example is how blanket bombing (as was done in WWII) is no longer conducted. Can you imagine the life losses had the US blanket bombed Baghdad, Mosul, and Tikrit during the opening days of Shock and Awe? We would have had millions of lives lost...but we have learned that is not the best route, so that own aspect of war has brought about a better version...and the more we learn, and the better technology gets, the less civilian casulties there will be.
This rambling is now also complete :)
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