Right.

[first_seventhe]

Okay, first off: Ohio? Plz to be stopping with the smear ad campaign, for God's Pretty Sake. Seriously. Look, I know this one guy voted for/against some stuff, and this other guy voted for/against some stuff, and you want to capitalize on that. But those of us with brains can see exactly what the fuck you're doing! It's all just semantics

Comments

[siva630]

(*breaks out "high school" history class skillz*)

I've always hated those uneducated douches who scream "WAR FOR OIL" whenever Iraq is mentioned, but the more you look at the history of American foreign policy, the more you see that they're probably right.

It's not just oil - it's influence in an area that was very anti-American. It was inevitable, the US needed to get a firm foothold in the Middle East. It wouldn't surprise me if they hit Iran in the next couple of years.

But yeah, American foreign policy has always been "englightened self-interest" - doing what's best for them politically and economically whilst cloaking their motives in ideological rhetoric. They did it in Latin America in the early 20th century; they did it in WWI; they did it in WWII, as well. They say it's a "war of ideology", but you know there's something else lurking under there.

And yeah, giving money to Africa is a bad idea. The governments are so corrupt there that you'd have to walk into the shanty towns and distribute dollars by yourself if you wanted to make a difference - otherwise it would all just end up in some Swiss bank (or God knows where else) for years on end.

OH POLITICS WHAT A FUN IT IS

[first_seventhe]

Hee. I'm a pacifist, but I admit I'm a politically uneducated one, so I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons to go to war that I just don't know. I just really, really hate it.

The "war for oil" thing -- I can totally believe that it's true. It just seems that if we keep forcing our way in there with bombs and grit in our teeth, that's not going to help too much. Why can't we have an ally there, rather than some nation we torched and then camped out in?

As for Africa, that's part of the problem, really. And I don't want to say we should declare war on them either. It's just - the rate at which AIDS is growing, and other diseases, and - it just makes me very sad.

I just see (well, not personally, but you know what I mean) a culture that hates America, and all the nation is doing to fight this is bombing and killing, which will only create more hate in the end.

Also, I know all my arguments are simplistic in the view of world politics :P I'm an engineer. I look at data and solve problems in a straightforward way. You never have to worry about the political environment of a reactor feed XD

[first_seventhe]

*grins* I have more!

By "war of ideology" I meant the terrorist ideology. I don't for one minute believe that "eliminating the terrorist threat" is the sole reason we entered this war - hell no. I more mean the ideology of "the enemy" - the terrorists that attacked on 9/11, the reason that Iraq and Afghanistan won't lay down and do what we say (not like that isn't a whole other argument), etc.

I don't think Congress/Bush/Whomever's rhetoric about this being an idealistic war is true for a second.

I meant the idealism behind who is attacking US.

Man, I ramble when I'm bored at work.

[siva630]

I could see how bombing Afghanistan (an extremely poor country with, btw Mr. Bush, ONE OF THE HIGHEST DEATH RATES IN THE WORLD) could be a counter to the 9/11 attacks, but Iraq had nothing to do with those attacks. Hell, the majority of the terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, and we know that America wouldn't touch them with a Pacific-sized barge pole with the amount of links and investment that they have in there.

I never really paid attention to the Iraq war very much, but I've gathered that they initially moved in because they thought Saddam had some weapons. Then, after it became more and more likely that they weren't going to find any weapons, they started pushing for the "idealistic" angle of "spreading democracy", etc.

I understand what you mean about not exactly endearing many of the Iraqis to the USA after the whole invasion thing. To be honest, I think they could have created much better, more stable relationships if that douchebag Bremer hadn't disbanded a large portion of the Iraqi army and fired most of the old conservative elite.

STUPID WAR AND ITS NUMEROUS COMPLICATIONS

Though I really don't know what we're going to do about this whole "Islamic extremist" problem. Nobody can breathe a word about Islam publicly without having a stupid protest and some bomb-wielding idiot spitting threats at the person who DARES TO EXPRESS HIM/HERSELF LIBERALLY.

...though I do agree that people as influential at the Pope should keep their mouths shut about such touchy issues.