I ran across a rant I posted last year during the great Iraq debates on some Sim board where the predominant attitude was staunchly pro-war pro-Bush. It should be noted that all that blind flag waving on this back alley board at sims showcase is nowhere to be seen nowadays. Anyway here's a post that made me start to consider journalling again even thought it was over a year ago now.
I thought it was interesting to post.
I would like to point out that protesting what the decision-makers have decided to do and supporting the people who are following those decision-makers' orders are two COMPLETELY different things!!
I do not agree with this war!! That has NOTHING to do with how I feel about the men and women who are over there fighting.
WHY does it have to be that if someone doesn't agree with this military action it's assumed that he or she doesn't love their country, doesn't respect and admire the people who are brave enough to risk their LIVES, and their LIMBS fighting in the name of the United States.
WHY is it assumed that because I feel it's not a good thing that these young people, these brave young people, are risking their health and innocence by following orders that I think are WRONG that I have no feelings for the soldiers themselves?? WHY?? ON THE CONTRARY! I think the potential outcome of this war is NOT worth paying with their lives, legs, or innocence!!! If their lives must be at risk please make it be for a worthy cause - not the suspicious circumstances and false crusades this war seems to be about! It's the ORDERS I have a problem with NOT the people who are following them!!!
Don't anyone DARE call me unpatriotic for loving my country enough to not want it or any citizen in it risked for questionable reasons.
I understand that families that may lose their loved children, wives, or husbands have to believe that they're at risk for noble reasons. Really, I understand that but PLEASE don't assume that I don't love and support people in the military just because I disagree with what they've been told to do!
I have respectfully disagreed with our President. I have not called him names. All I have done is said "I do not think that is right."
I have not supported killing other people. I absolutely disagree with whomever had that sign about killing your superiors in the military or whatever it said. I think that sign was cruel, unnecessary and embarassing. So I don't absolutely agree with everyone who doesn't support this war either.
God help me I think for myself.
I believe in respect and thinking things through. I have done my best to show respect to others' feelings about these issues while still managing to get my honest feelings across and that has taken a lot out of me. Just because I choose to consider issues and think for myself rather than blindly agree to whatever my parents, some talk-show host, or even elected officials tell me I'm called unpatiotic.
Pretty damn sad if you ask me.
Here's something that my husband wrote the other day:
Pardon me.
Pardon me if my views strike you as "unpatriotic."
Pardon me if I choose to remember those who fought and died to preserve my rights by excercising those rights.
Pardon me if, in my day-to-day life, I feel that the President's attempts to strip away my "inalienable" rights-to stifle free speech (such as the student at St. John's College in Santa Fe who was interrogated for hours by the FBI minutes after allegedly threatening the President in an internet chat room), to remove our protection against unreasonable search and seizure (the "secret" FBI court and search warrants), to remove our right to a speedy trial (President's directives about "enemy combatants" - including US citizens), to remove our protection against unlawful arrest (AG Ashcroft's laws about quarantines, as well as the alleged "enemy combatants) - are more threatening than a man halfway around the world who, apparently has no missle that can fly more than ninety-three miles.
Pardon me if I find it odd that a group of people who, for the past thirty years have ardently supported our rights - such as the right to bear arms (which, if you read carefully, was given to ensure the ability to overthrow the government, should it become necessary)- seem to be the most vocal group in support of the repeal of those rights.
Pardon me if I cling to a simple phrase - "of the people, for the people and by the people"
Pardon me if I believe that the companies that benefit from a war should not be those who most closely tied to the people who are responsible for starting it.
Pardon me if I wish our soldiers were safe, here at home, rather than safe in a foreign country.
Please, pardon me if my opposition to the unprovoked attack of a foreign country offends your sense of patriotism.
I thought that was what America was all about.
Sorry for any typos I'm transcribing it here.
Ok, rant over, sorry if I offended anyone but I just couldn't handle being called unAmerican one-more-time without losing it.
4/6/2004
According to CNN, as of April 6, 2004 there have been 726 coalition deaths
623 Americans, 59 Britons, five Bulgarians, one Dane, one Estonian, 17 Italians, two Poles, one Salvadoran, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and four Ukrainians.
About 8827 civilian deaths have been reported in Iraq as of April 6, 2004 according to a third-party monitoring website.