Since you've said you're against any war, I'll disregard the disclaimer at the end and assume that you're against the Iraq war. Right? Most Americans believe the Iraq war was worth it? You'd have to show me objective stats (not the garbage from absurdly partisan websites on here) which support that contention. I would be surprised if this were the case. Obama ended America's involvement in Iraq, didn't he? With regard to the idea that Afghanistan 'now has a chance at Democracy', since you responded politely, I'll try to remain polite as well. The idea that Afghanistan is anywhere near democracy is laughable. The country has been, is now and will be ruled by a feudal organization of warlords. Afghanistan cannot be molded into a democracy at the point of a gun. When the Americans leave, things will slowly settle back into what for now is the natural order. Modern democracy in the Western mold must be built upon the foundations of industrialization. Countries like Afghanistan cannot be democratized in 5 years, at the point of a gun. Power does not flow that way over there. Anyone who has spent any time there knows this intuitively. You can't use 100 Apache helicopters to pick up a giant template marked 'Western democracy', fly it over to Iraq or Afghanistan, and drop it on top of the country. It won't work. It hasn't worked. It's all well and good to say 'it might', but that buys nothing on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Let's be honest. America's interest in these countries is strategic. I understand that, but let's be honest about it, and not characterize it as some sort of noble attempt to spread the good democratic word.
Don't let that guy intimidate you. Trust me on this: the average PhD in Engineering knows no more about politics than the average high school grad. Nobody goes to E school to minor in polisci. All this "Obama = socialism" crap is the mark of a third-rate mentality; I don't care how many letters the shit-talker can write behind his name. Single-payer wasn't even on the table, all you whiny-ass reichtard bastards!
I'm against war, period, let's leave it at that. When you have this belief, then you do lots of things beforehand so that war doesn't become an issue, rather than let things boil over and then cry foul. If people come after me or my family, then I'll sure fight, but I don't want that and so I live accordingly. During the time after 9/11, Americans were scared/angry out of their minds and struck back at two key centers of this terrorist ideology, Afghanistan and Iraq. Our allies were with us in the former but half of them balked at the latter because Saddam was bribing them left and right (eg, Russians, French, Chinese). Bush was correctly representing the average American view when he gave the "Axis of Evil" speech. In 2002-2004, American support for those two wars was running north of 70% according to the polls (many of them), and that's why most politicians (including Hillary, Biden et al) supported him. Keeping his promise, Bush also defined and started the execution of the timetable of American withdrawal from Iraq that Obama is merely following now - we are still there as we speak but are gradually letting the Iraqis take over, which is a good thing. Afghanistan is less fortunate and Obama has increased our invovement in that country via NATO, same thing that Bush would have done. Yes, American interest there is strategic, but it was the same with Japan and Germany after WWII, and that turned out well. Oil vs industrial capability, what's the difference - you want both. In other words, we want the Middle East to go towards democracy so that the flow of oil be uninterrupted and terrorism minimized... surpsise, surprise. What's more, deep in American culture there's a veritable desire that the world be free. Is it because we love everybody or because we want to maximize trade with them? Don't know and don't care, it's a good thing. How quickly can Afghanistan and Iraq develop democtratic institutions? I'm not sure, but I've worked with Iraqis and Afghanis in this country and they are the same with me and my family, they are not stupid or primitive despite what some are saying. Very smart and hardworking people, love their families too. They now have a chance to a better life over there, and they'd better grab it, or else... what can I say? People surprise you, it happens all the time. These two nations now have the opportunity to do exactly that. It's worth a chance and I hope they deliver.
I think the arguments that obamacare won't work, etc are fine and of course accurate, but they miss the point. The aim was never to fix health care. Rather, the first aim was to get control of health care and lay the foundation for a later move to a full socialist system. With control of the entire health care financing system, democrats know they will be in the catbird seat when it comes to extorting funds from big pharma, hospitals, managed care providers et al. They will be able to push their lackeys on these companies as execs, much as they did with FNM/FRE and probably to the same end result. A secondary aim was to convert a majority of the country to being dependents of the federal government, much like welfare recipients. Step one is to convince voters that it is ok to use the raw power of government to force other voters to subsidize you. At one point in this country, that would have been a radical concept, and most people would have refused on principle. Now, not only do they not see it as shameful, they regard it as highly desirable and castigate people who don't want to subsidize others as greedy. After voters accept the rob peter to pay paul principle, the next step is to legalize the 40 million or so illegals. After all, they need health care too and it is the moral thing to do to force the taxpayers of this country to subsidize people who came here illegally.
Agree. The scary thing is that there's no limit to how many poor people they can import and convince to keep voting for them (Dems) in exchange for "free" services that come from "the rich"... Sure looks like a giant power-grab move on the liberals side, and they have to be stopped.
I'm past the point where I spend much time arguing these things with ET members, mostly because the majority of them won't understand what I'm saying. I will just tell you this. If you believe Afghanistan and Iraq are 'two key centres of terrorist ideology', you are mistaken, especially about Iraq. Like I said, I'm not going to explain why or how the current Islamic fundamentalist movement gained momentum. If you're interested, you could read "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright. This is by no means an exhaustive history but it will give you some idea of how things got started.
Is it odd to anyone else that a claimed Phd from UVA in Physics quotes Dick Morris almost all the time? I find that very odd? I mean really shouldn't he be thinking about Schrodinger's Cat or some shit?