The millions around the world (including me) who protested and said DO NOT INVADE IRAQ! are indeed the ones who had it right on “I told you so” in the first place.
Patriotism is love of country. I love my wife, too, and would defend her with my life if she were attacked. That doesn’t mean I think she is the best wife in the world, intrinsically superior to ever other woman on earth, that I think she’s always right, that I never argue with her, or take her side every time she is in dispute with someone else (although I always try to give her the benefit of the doubt). And the same goes in regard to her love for me. Imagine what it would look like if someone loved their spouse in the same way that they show their “patriotism” for their country: chanting her name, putting her picture conspicuously on their car, or on a billboard over their place of business … I don’t call any of that patriotism. I call is egotism writ large, and vanity.
“Even uber-rightie Glenn Beck has admitted that the people he has long derided as “liberals” were right back in ’03.”-Well, yeah. But, but, but Benghazi!
Republicans castisgated Bush 41 for not going all the way to Bagdad and removing Sadam during the first Gulf War. The reasons he decided not to he relayed in his book about those times (was it an autobiography?) soon after he left office. Everything, I mean literally everything he prophesized would happen if he had taken Bagdad then has indeed transpired now.
Shouldn’t it be the opposite? If military service is mandatory then all a person can say is that they didn’t dodge the draft; when it is voluntary those who have served can say that they chose to risk their lives for their country. I acknowledge and honor their patriotism. -I acknowledge that there is also a degree of patriotism involved following the tax code. However, it cannot be equated to military service.
I was not saying that military service automatically made you a better American, and more genuinely patriotic. What I was saying, is that people that had done such service were called unpatriotic back in 2003, and were even being called unpatriotic by those that had never served at all. Perhaps I was not as clear on that as I should have been!
As to taxes, I too paid my fair share (and even at least somewhat grudgingly, unlike some of our constantly complaining ultra conservatives here), all during my working career as a middle class aerospace worker. In fact, one could say that working on rocket engines that were used for American Intercontinental ballistic Missiles that made Mutually Assured Destruction a working policy between the USA and the USSR, could indeed also be considered a somewhat patriotic duty also. Especially as it kept those two super powers from wiping human kind off the face of the Earth all during the more active times of the Cold War!
To say nothing of the fact that I also worked on the rocket engines (I imagine that I might even be one of the 400,000 or so people recognized as having worked directly on Apollo by NASA) that placed Americans on the moon, and brought them back alive and well!!
So, I have never worried about my own patriotism, in any shape or manner. But, I did seriously question the second Iraq War. A war where the USA for the first time in its history shot the first shots in a premeditated war. Something that I take no pride in at all! Although, I still take pride in our own service people, it certainly was not their fault that the country had such chicken hawks as leaders at that time!!
In the way the Bush Administration reacted to Tower attack,I said more than the towers came down. People are now not having as much trouble admitting, and understanding what I meant.
Dtroutma almost 10 years ago
The millions around the world (including me) who protested and said DO NOT INVADE IRAQ! are indeed the ones who had it right on “I told you so” in the first place.
moosemin almost 10 years ago
This November (and the next, and the next) let’s tell THEM so.
Doughfoot almost 10 years ago
Patriotism is love of country. I love my wife, too, and would defend her with my life if she were attacked. That doesn’t mean I think she is the best wife in the world, intrinsically superior to ever other woman on earth, that I think she’s always right, that I never argue with her, or take her side every time she is in dispute with someone else (although I always try to give her the benefit of the doubt). And the same goes in regard to her love for me. Imagine what it would look like if someone loved their spouse in the same way that they show their “patriotism” for their country: chanting her name, putting her picture conspicuously on their car, or on a billboard over their place of business … I don’t call any of that patriotism. I call is egotism writ large, and vanity.
Bilword almost 10 years ago
We will never escape our problems with this two party monopoly we have had for years.
braindead Premium Member almost 10 years ago
“Even uber-rightie Glenn Beck has admitted that the people he has long derided as “liberals” were right back in ’03.”-Well, yeah. But, but, but Benghazi!
Mugens Premium Member almost 10 years ago
Republicans castisgated Bush 41 for not going all the way to Bagdad and removing Sadam during the first Gulf War. The reasons he decided not to he relayed in his book about those times (was it an autobiography?) soon after he left office. Everything, I mean literally everything he prophesized would happen if he had taken Bagdad then has indeed transpired now.
TripleAxel almost 10 years ago
Shouldn’t it be the opposite? If military service is mandatory then all a person can say is that they didn’t dodge the draft; when it is voluntary those who have served can say that they chose to risk their lives for their country. I acknowledge and honor their patriotism. -I acknowledge that there is also a degree of patriotism involved following the tax code. However, it cannot be equated to military service.
frodo1008 almost 10 years ago
I was not saying that military service automatically made you a better American, and more genuinely patriotic. What I was saying, is that people that had done such service were called unpatriotic back in 2003, and were even being called unpatriotic by those that had never served at all. Perhaps I was not as clear on that as I should have been!
As to taxes, I too paid my fair share (and even at least somewhat grudgingly, unlike some of our constantly complaining ultra conservatives here), all during my working career as a middle class aerospace worker. In fact, one could say that working on rocket engines that were used for American Intercontinental ballistic Missiles that made Mutually Assured Destruction a working policy between the USA and the USSR, could indeed also be considered a somewhat patriotic duty also. Especially as it kept those two super powers from wiping human kind off the face of the Earth all during the more active times of the Cold War!
To say nothing of the fact that I also worked on the rocket engines (I imagine that I might even be one of the 400,000 or so people recognized as having worked directly on Apollo by NASA) that placed Americans on the moon, and brought them back alive and well!!
So, I have never worried about my own patriotism, in any shape or manner. But, I did seriously question the second Iraq War. A war where the USA for the first time in its history shot the first shots in a premeditated war. Something that I take no pride in at all! Although, I still take pride in our own service people, it certainly was not their fault that the country had such chicken hawks as leaders at that time!!
Dtroutma almost 10 years ago
When nationalism becomes as radical as religion, it is equally dangerous, as history has proven, time, and again.
Banjo Gordy Premium Member almost 10 years ago
In the way the Bush Administration reacted to Tower attack,I said more than the towers came down. People are now not having as much trouble admitting, and understanding what I meant.