[schoolie monster]

I'm reserving my opinion on the war, but I need to express my opinion on some charges against this country. Our country.

I often hear the "if we attack, aren't we the same as them" type of statement and I think that's a very dangerous and dilusional opinion. Comparing the two countries is ridiculous. The very fact that all of us can express our opinions freely without fear of being executed, tortured along with our families seems to make such comparisons silly. Therefore, any simple, blanket comparisons between our countries and their societies are pointless. As much as anyone can disagree with Bush, I don't think we can quite lump him in with Saddam Hussien. By no means do I think the Bush Administration is in this to free the Iraqi people and they should drop that argument because its transparent and those are not our motivations. It would be a healthy bi-product, but there are plenty of oppressed people around the globe... are we going to free everyone?

Other similar comparisons or examples such as "if a terrorist group from the US attacked China, should they attack us" are also ridiculous. If that happened here, those people would be relentlessly pursued and brought to justice by our own law enforcement. We wouldn't aid them, harbor them or support them in any way as is often the case with many of these countries. And we certainly wouldn't rely on another country to take care of these terrorists for us. This is another difference that prevents such comparisons.

If anyone has spent even a limited time following events over the past years, you would know that radical Muslims approve of attacks on innoncent civilians and their leaders encourage and support such actions. Indeed, I have seen many interviews with many of these people and they support "death to all Americans"... Meanwhile, many Muslims of various descent, from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc etc live freely in our society. So, apparently that is another big difference as we as a people and the gov't do not support death to all Muslims or death to all Iraqis. In fact, if war is necessary, and this is not an endorsement, I guarantee you will see a great deal of effort go in to limiting civilian casualties... At the same time, would you not be safe in assuming that Saddam and many other Muslim leaders in our position would attempt to maximize civilian casualties. It would be the easiest thing for us to carpet bomb the whole country into oblivion, but you will see surgical strikes directed at Military targets. It won't be nerve gas, mustard gas, or biological weapons which Saddam has used before... it will be laser guided smart bombs.

And finally, the notion that this is a war about oil is again, ridiculous. If you are aware of other current global issues, you would be aware that Venezuela, one of the biggest oil producers in the world, is in absolute chaos right now. If we were only interested in oil, we could throw a bunch of aid, etc. at them and get all the oil we want. It would cost a heck of alot less than a war. Or if by "war for oil" persons own logic, we could easily "take over" Venezuela and take all the oil. We aren't trying to take over Iraq for oil.

Now look, I'm not naive and I know that during the cold war, our gov't did some shady things and worked with some sketchy "resistance" (aka... terrorist) groups. Our nation is not always the good guys in every situation. But using over-simplistic comparisons serves no purpose. I get fed up with our gov't for alot of reasons all the time. I think gov't is getting out of hand in terms of size and structure. Talk about a bunch of BS. Just spend some time reading the tax laws... instant migraine. I think there's alot of room for change, but I also believe this is the greatest country in the world. And I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. And I don't appreciate hearing comparisons between our gov't and dictatorships that starve, torture and slaughter their own people while they live in palaces. They just have no place in this debate.

One other important point, people speaking out against the war are not necessarily bad Americans or un-patriotic. People are allowed their own opinon. Our society is based on those very freedoms. If there was no debate on the issue, I would be frightened.

And what really scares me, is to see people take a stance based on their political affiliation. "I support the war 'cause I love Bush" "I'm against the war 'cause I hate Bush" That scares me.

ps... I'm not directing that at anyone in this thread... I have to be honest, after reading several statements I really only skimmed the rest. This actually based more on media members that instead of reporting the news, try to alter your opinion and put their own slant into the stories. And watching the debates of "experts" on CNN or Fox in which you can predict everything someone will say once you determine if they are "right" or "left"...