Dave,
You badly mischaracterized the headline on my story this week by omitting the question mark. The headline was meant to indicate that a debate over the war appears to be pending with the City Council. By implying that I had made a flat statement "Billings against Iraq War," you misstated both my own position and the message of the story.
As the story made clear, the number of organized protesters in Billings is quite small. To presume that they represent the majority opinion here would be irresponsible, and it was irresponsible of you to imply that I made that presumption.
I also wonder why you characterized The Outpost as a "throwaway" newspaper. Is is because it is free? If that's the case, then you host a throwaway talk show.
I didn't mention that, while I opposed the war from the outset, I am far from the pull-out-now-at-any-cost crowd. I am very much of the Colin Powell if-you-break-it-you-own-it school. By invading, we took on a moral obligation to see things through. That's one reason I thought the war was a bad idea: The military should be used to protect our interests, not the interests of other countries.
But it's too late for that now. I won't support until a pullout until I am persuaded that it is in the best interests of Iraq to do so.
13 comments:
And to hell with what the Iraqi people think. Your colonialism shines through.
Not true, Mark. What the Iraqi people think is crucial. But I think we should be skeptical about how much we know about what they think.
David: We should leave when we need to. The Iraqis don't want us/do want us/who knows who wants us is just not viable. We keep creating a situation over there that, as the U.S. intelligence community reported this week, breeds more villains ready to attack us. And it is no longer a war that we would pull out of, it is a peace keeping operation and we're not doing real well at that. Every time I read what the generals say, I remember the headlines from vietnam. More men, more time, more equipment and the VC ruled the night and we had the day until we finally said good night.
“The military should be used to protect our interests, not the interests of other countries.”
Baloney. What was our “interest” in fighting two world wars in Europe? What was our “interest” in fighting the Korean War or the Vietnam War?
Every major war we have fought was to protect the interests of other countries. Sometimes our interests came first, and the other country’s interest came second, but what does that matter? The end result was the same.
You just don’t like war, right? That’s OK. Go ahead and say it. But, please, stop inventing these fuzzy and silly positions for yourself.
Polls, while difficult to take in a war-torn atmosphere, should not be lightly set aside when they interfere with imperial objectives.
In short, the US invaded to take control of oil and install military bases, and Iraqis be damned, nothing will be allowed to interfere.
If the US truly cared about the welfare of the Iraqi people, it would pull back, as it's soldiers and warplanes are enraging Iraqis. It would supply all the money needed for rebuilding. It would allow third-party peacekeeping troops in to assist in maintaining order while rebuilding is going on. It would stand back and allow Iraqis to decide what to do with their oil, and how to arrange their democracy.
None of that will happen. We broke it, meant to break it, and intend to keep it in its broken state.
Too bad David "Berg" Fulwiler cant afford to live in Bozeman-he's be right at home with the rest of the californicators.
Chuck and Mark, I wish I had your confidence that things would turn out as well as you envision if we were to leave.
Punch40, What planet did you say you were from? It amazes me that you are willing to take any position, now matter how ridiculous it might be, just so you can continue to be disagreeable. I hope you find enough satisfaction in your contrariness to compensate for the alternate universe in which you have to live.
Dave Crisp-I too was always opposed to the invasion. But now the problem. If you sign on to the "if you break it, it is yours" theory, then what to we do when we realize it is breaking us. Not even this country can afford to spend (i.e. throw away) billions on a weekly basis. I feel like we are the swimmer who has grabbed onto an anchor. Do we hold on until it takes us to the bottom of the ocean? It was not smart to grab the anchor and maybe even "less smart" to keep holding on. In any event the anchor is going to sink. We just have to decide if we are willing to drown.
Anonymous 614,
Excellent point and well said.
David - I wish I had your confidence that the US wants things to turn out well.
I was reading a book by Kevin Phillips which I forget - one of his recent ones, in which he claimed that RNC in DC put out a brief summary each day of talking points for all of the right wing radio hosts around the country. I noticed too, when I had a chance to hear Berg, that at the start of his show he would read a prepared statement about some random topic, closing with something like "That's the way I see it." Being an accountant, I quickly put two and two together and concluded that Berg was reading RNC-prepared materials to start his show each day.
If bergy boy is such a big man, why doesn't he ever post here?! I don't get it. Is he afraid? Is he a coward? Is he afraid to have his opinions challenged? Why DOESN'T bergy boy ever show up on a blog??? In fact, NONE of the bigmouthed blowhards EVER appears on a blog.
LK
Mark, I can't speak for the "US." I don't have much confidence that the Bush administration wants things to turn out well, and I don't have much confidence that Congress can make things turn out well. I hope that most Americans want to do the right thing, but I think it is damnably hard to know what that is.
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