What gets me is how someone who is ostensibly on 'my side' in this discussion can be such a blatant moron. I mean, sure-I'm a Libertarian Conservative, I'm pro-war, and I believe in fighting the good fight, but even I know that when politicians give us the stamp of approval to do something there is some kind of string attached. We have selfish reasons to do what we declare as the right thing-and honestly, every country does the same thing. We get blamed for it because I've heard that we're somewhat 'up' in the world, and the positions around the top are the ones that everyone is watching. Whether they watch us to be like us, to avoid being like us, or to take advantage of us when our pants are down is up for grabs-but they do watch us.
But y'know, irrational hate not does get us anywhere. It can be argued that justified, perfectly rational hate doesn't either, but I'll at least stand by positions that revolve around that. Honestly-what the heck would we gain by pissing off the British? I don't think that everyone gets it.
As we have developed new and better means of blowing things all to hell, we have developed a need along with it to be aware of the goings on in the world. As someone who is pro-war, let me put it clearly-we need to pick our fights well. And as much as I hate to say it, Dragon Mage is right on ONE thing. We aren't losing the war we're in-we're completely kicking the crap out of the insurgents. I find it hard to believe we don't just fire bomb their training camps and start checking every Mosque we come across for illegal arms-I'm pretty sure automatic weapons are illegal for the average citizen in Iraq-but those aren't my decisions to make.
What really bothers me is that people don't understand the nature of war. War is not pretty, it is not a happy, flowery endeavor in which the just walk out and slay the evil bad guys. I seem to recall that Britain allowed the Germans to attack their civilians on one particular engagement because they decided to keep the fact they'd deciphered the Germans' codes a secret. My history is probably off some, but I believe 40,000 people died in that attack, most of which were civilians.
Out in Iraq, I'm certain we've killed civilians in our hunt for terrorists. I'm certain when things really get hot and we decide to do something about what's going on in Iran, civilians will die. The North Korean situation? I consider it a Chinese problem, but I'm sure we're going to be dragged into it. I hear things about Russia employing cold war tactics, killing people who left Russia, seeking amnesty in the UK-right on your door step, Britain.
These are bad times, right now. And I don't want to say it, but I wonder if we're all in for it big time. American, British, French, Iraqi, Iranian, Israeli, Turkish, Palestinian, Chinese, Korean, and Russian. These are all people who are caught in the motion of whatever their leaders decide. I want to be wrong here, really. I also want to buy a gun in case I'm right.
Make no mistake here. What's happening now is not so good. I'm really hoping it's the worst of it.
