You can not even defend your own beliefs! Do you guys even have any beliefs? I am not saying that we should enforce morality on other people, then we would be no better than the people who we claim are "immoral." But how can you morally equivilize everything in life? Do you do this when you make decisions for yourself? If you do, would it really be considered making your own decisions? Frankly, I couldn't give a damn about what other people think, but when I make my own decisions, I do not want to be manipulated by this "everyone is right, no one is wrong" bullshit! If this attitude was around during WWII, you would be speaking German and I would be a bar of soap!
It isn't exactly a piece of cake to for citizens to leave those countries. They don't even have that freedom in many places. Fine, let the bastards rot, but lets not pretend that hanging homosexuals and stoning to death adulterers is morally equivilant to trial by jury. If a country is crazy and it keeps to itself, fine! The fact is that we have been damaged by countries who began as despotic regimes minding their own business. Who cared about Taliban Afghanistan before 9/11? They were just blowing up thousand year old Buddah statues, not Americans (actually, they were harming us indirectly by harboring Bin Laden before 9/11, I am just trying to make a point)! Just because a country has a different form of governement is no reason in itself invade a country, but pretending that everything in the world is morally equivilant is not a good thing.
I don't know how much freedom of speech was allowed in the Iraq elections. Who ran against Saddam again? Were there any newspapers that were anti-Saddam? Well, if there was, they would have gotten a bullet through their head. Freedom of speech is the most crucial element in democracy. Without it, the citizens are not informed, and can be manipulated even more easily by those in power, creating a dictatorship. I guess Saddam Hussein won with 99.9% of the vote. Seems like a good old fashioned Soviet election.
Gross, I am trying to remember the Arab country with a popularly elected government...wait, that is right, there is none! I really can't remember any freedom of speech or religion either in the Middle East. Sure, America has puppet regimes in the Middle East who are dictatorial and suppress freedom, and as I wrote earlier in re: how different are we that is a huge mistake that undermines America's efforts. When I speak of democracy, I do not mean America dominating everyone, I mean elected governments, freedom of speech and other freedoms. Sorry, but I don't consider a country where adulterers are stoned to death very "ideal." Right now, the Arab world is in a sorry state. Most Arabs agree that popularly elected governments and freedom of speech would be a good thing. Maybe you misinterpretted my article, but I never said that what America does in bribing corrupt regimes is good, quite the opposite. Finally, since when did we start talking about South East Asia? The fact is that in the middle east, individuals, mainly religious leaders view the U.S. and the West as the threat. Maybe because of American interference in the past in the Middle East, maybe because of Western Culture that they see as pornographic and unholy, maybe because democracy lessens their power. Whatever the reason, these individuals, not everyone, view the U.S. as the "Great Satan" and have used their own means to attack Western and American targets. Maybe the Arab world is not ready yet, but democracies, not corrupt dictatorships, would make the Middle East more peaceful, and allow for a better world as a whole.
I do not agree with Gross at all. Just because terrorism is worse in other places, we should not fight it? If I was a terrorist, I would attack America before any other nation. It is the "Great Satan," the representitive in the Western World, security is much looser than places where terror is prevelant, like Israel, and people here are very easily frightened. If a bus blew up here, it would be the top news story for a month, and the bus companies would shut down because people would be so frightened. If you do not stop terrorists right now, or give in to them and negotiate, they will believe their tactics worked, use them again, and increase their operation in size. If you don't believe that the U.S. is being targeted by Al Qaeda terrorists, look to World Trade Center 93', the Khobar Towers bombing, the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the U.S.S. Cole, and 9/11/01. These are just large operations in which scores of Americans died. There have also been numerous attacks on other nationalities by Al Qaeda in the last year, such as the Bali bombing in which nearly 200 people died, the takeover of a Moscow theater that led to the deaths of over 100 hostages, and the attacks on Israeli targets in Kenya. If the U.S. gives in to Al Qaeda, they will just get stronger and use stronger means to carry out their operations, such as chemicals, gas, and nukes. Terrorism is a virus, and if we don't destroy it, it will destroy us. As for the great manipulation taking place brought up by Gross, I do not think that the working man will benifit from having to fear each time he takes the bus to work. I do not see how fighting Osama Bin Laden benifits the rich only. It is because of men like him that the Arab world has not recieved messages of democracy, and freedoms which we take for granted. Defeating the terrorist bigots will not only benefit the American establishment, but will benefit all Americans, as well as Arabs who have been denied freedoms because of the fanaticism and mid-evil mentality that the terrorists live by.
As we begin a New Year, the war begun nearly a year and a half ago by nineteen suicidal madmen is still continuing. I fear that those in power may destroy its meaning for their own political advancement, but we must never forget what this war is about. America is, without doubt, the most powerful country in the world. With that power comes great responisibility. The United States must fight this fight with morality in mind. The United States continues to negotiate with corrupt, dictatorial regimes in the Middle East who consider the U.S. their enemy, yet still reap the benefits of the United States' friendship. Saudi Arabia, a corrupt monarchy, gets billions of dollars yearly in U.S. aid, yet still funds, extremist Wahabi Islam, an Islamic sect that spreads anti-semetic and anti-american messages from Europe, to Pakistan, and beyond. 15 of the 19 hijackers during September 11 were Saudi, all hijackers were radicalized in Saudi funded Wahabi institutions IN EUROPE, and Saudi money pays for most of Bin Laden's operations. This is bad enough without mentioning the fact that in Saudi Arabia, there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, and that religious police enforce strict Taliban-like Islamic law in that country. Saudi Arabia has harmed the U.S. much more than Saddam Hussein, yet, they still get U.S. aid and sell America oil. If the U.S. wants to improve its image, fighting terrorism is not the problem, the problem is the hypocracy that it uses to fight it. If the U.S. truly wants to support democracy and freedom around the world, they must remember what America stands for as they fight terrorism. Let the Saudi princes eat oil!
