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Originally Posted by lickmyballssuckmy
That's the reality. If you're upset at us and not them, your priorities are out of focus. And if you're upset at them but you think we should do nothing, you're asking for more 9/11-type attacks on, get this, innocent civilians. Weird, huh? A little perspective please.
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This is the black/white mindset that drives me nuts. Obviously something should have been done about bin Laden twenty years ago (or maybe we shouldn't have even supplied him weapons and training so he could fight the evil Russians), so no I'm not "blaming Bush." But we're STILL not doing anything about bin Laden now! We're not even looking for him.
However, there is not an "either/or" dichotomy here. There is a broad spectrum of actions that could have been taken after 9/11. For instance, we didn't even allow the weapons inspectors to do their job and discover that there were no weapons of mass destruction before we went ahead and invaded the country. My opposition to the Iraq war does not automatically mean that I think we should have done "nothing" after 9/11. I think that Iraq was completely unconnected to 9/11, and we ignored the people who did attack this country in order to conduct a military invasion that had been planned years in advance. We are completely ignoring other countries with extremely dangerous terrorist ties (such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE) because we are in bed with them on a business level. Hell, Bush wanted to hand port inspections over to the UAE when their government partially funds terrorist activity! We ignore genocide in the Sudan because there is no oil to syphon from them.
To make this clear, I understand perfectly that the men and women in uniform are not making the decisions to go to war or even how to conduct the war. They've made a commitment to their country and are serving their duty based on that commitment. Soldiers are being sent home when they are injured and spent and getting cut off from the services they need to be healthy after the horrible things they've gone through. They are being sent to into combat without the basic equipment that they need to survive, or even enough food in some cases. On the other hand companies like Halliburton are charging our government exhobitant fees to perform substandard services that soldiers are trained to do themselves for far less salary. Since the occupation began, over $9 billion just disappeared and to this day no one knows where it is. To me it's our leadership that is corrupt, greedy, and far more vested in corporate interests than in their own citizens. The soldiers are doing the best they can under horrible circumstances, some of which are preventable by our own government.
I didn't mean to unload like this, but being told to "get some perspective" based on an inaccurate assumption about my beliefs just pissed me off. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.