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Just Shootin' The Breeze (Because I Don't Own A Gun)

Posted: April 4th, 2005, 4:22 pm
by Michael
A friend visited me a few days ago. I don’t know why, but every time he visits, the talk turns to current social and/or political events. Come to think of it, when anybody visits, the talk turns to current social and/or political events. Nature of the beast, I guess. And by “the beast”, I mean me.

Some of the thoughts that were kicked around just ended as questions that neither of us could answer. Some thoughts were observations and some were, well, just thoughts.

How do we know exactly who was being tortured by the former Iraqi government and why?

We do know that the Kurds wanted to, and still want to, secede. Hussein didn’t like that idea. He had them killed with biological and chemical weapons.

In the 1860s the southern states in The Former United States of America wanted to secede. Lincoln and the north wouldn't let them.

I don’t think that the north used chemical or biological weapons on the south because they didn't have the technology then. Who knows what they would have used if The Civil War took place later in time? It very well might not have been a four year war.

In the 1970s, people at Kent State didn't like what the government was doing and protested. Four students were murdered and many injured by government agents.

How many hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese people died when we unleashed our WMD on them?

We also talked about Waco and Ruby Ridge.

The government of Saddam Hussein was a secular government. His ambassador to the UN, Tariq Aziz, was a Christian. Hussein might have been crazy, but he wasn’t crazy about religious fanatics and they didn’t much like him.

Were the primary torture victims associated with Al Quaida, Hamas or other religious factions? They certainly weren’t running amuck in Iraq and causing all the problems that are being caused in other Middle Eastern countries.

Or maybe Saddam tortured “Bill”, the next door neighbor, just because he was bored or because he found out that Bill was saying bad things about him.

We compared Saddam’s reputation with what’s going on in the US under the Bush regime. I know I’m typing this freely and will post it freely, but do we really have a government that's willing to allow people to have and express their thoughts? It is, after all, part of who we are and how we got to be here. Does The Patriot Act give the government the right to monitor what I’m typing now? Are they monitoring what I’m typing now? How far will they let me go before they “disappear” me? Maybe they could care less what I’m typing now and I’ll never be “disappeared”.

Why are people with t-shirts that have even the slightest hint of opposition to Bush, like shirts that say “Democrats For America”, not allowed in to see Bush when he speaks? They’re not allowed in or they’re removed forcibly from the “town meetings” he’s conducting to push his Social Security plan.

There’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein was full of himself. He had statues of himself all over the place. However, there are a lot of countries in the world that have that kind of leadership. It’s a pretty historical phenomenon and absolutely no reason to attack a sovereign nation.

More Iraqis had jobs during the reign of Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad was a relatively modern city compared to some of the cities ruled by Islamic theocracies.

Iraq produced some of the top scientists, engineers, doctors, etc.

What if all the brutality and torture was inflicted upon fanatic religious factions to keep them in check and not inflicted upon the "regular" citizens of the country? Our invasion has provoked those factions to grow 100 fold in Iraq.

Was this a master plan? Here we go, another conspiracy theory, right? It’s not, really. It was just part of a discussion. But what if Dubya wanted to gather as many Islamic fanatics as possible in one place so he can perform genocide on them and take back the “holy land” for Christians?

Doesn’t “holy land” just mean a land with lots of holes? It does now.

Posted: April 7th, 2005, 8:18 pm
by mtmynd
damn, Michael... sounds like you and your friend were having some deep talks... many questions w/o answers...

you question about the WWII bombings - i read some months back that many of the then top military leaders felt that bombing Japan was totally unnecessary... Japan was ready to collapse... a real tragedy at the time seeing how so many mil-top guns felt about it.. Which leads me to the President at the time...Truman - he must've had the final say-so... but why would he ignore the advice of others? Could it have something to do with wanting to see if the 'investment in the atomic bomb' was worthy of the time and expense? sounds somewhat ridiculous.. but...? and in addition if this new power (atomic warfare) did work, it would certainly give pause to other nations, eh?

Which opens another trail - all wars that the U.S. gets involved in smell of the fact that wars are started to 'test military might'. Witness Iraq - the military had been dramatically improved since VN and even the Gulf War... how well could it perform? Where to "test" the power...? Hmmm... it's easy to connect Hussein into a battlefield for 'testing the power'... we all know how much BS was released upon the American people by this admin...

oh well... just some thoughts i've had regarding national military might and all that 'stuff'.....

Posted: April 8th, 2005, 8:03 am
by sooZen
Michael and Cecil...when my friends get together, we don't talk about any of that 'stuff' and we may be happier because of that fact.

When you end the wars...let me know.

Peace,
SooZen :wink:

Posted: April 11th, 2005, 9:23 pm
by Michael
Cecil, I don’t know how true this is, but rumor has it that Truman used the bombs as a show of strength to the then gathering Red Menace, The USSR. Sort of a “don’t fuck with us” message.

SooZen, there are all kinds of people in this world. You may be happier not talking about world conditions.

Sometimes I wish that I could look away and sort of pretend that none of this was happening. It’s far too difficult for me to do that.

Will I personally end war? Not in a million years.

The Vietnam War went on far too long. However, the people and their growing distaste for losing loved ones helped bring that war to an end.

Walter Cronkite, only one person, but a very well known person, spoke out against the war on one of his nightly news shows. That also helped, as he was respected like no news caster is today.

I don’t judge whether a person should be interested in the condition of the planet upon which they reside. As a non theist, I especially believe, though, that I have a responsibility to try to leave the earth better than I found it. There’s nothing for me after I die. No heaven, no hell, just worms and degradation. So I feel as if I have to do something to improve the world for future generations.

You’re absolutely right, though, it’s a lot easier and probably makes one happier to ignore world conditions.

The only caveat is that it’s so much more of a surprise when power’s over reach reaches into the life of an unsuspecting “bystander”.