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Zonie63 -> RE: "Welcome to America's 30 year War" (5/21/2013 4:40:00 PM)
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ORIGINAL: vincentML
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
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ORIGINAL: vincentML
Perhaps the United States has no real choice in the matter. Maybe the war is being brought to the US.
On March 11, 2005, Al-Quds Al-Arabi published extracts from Saif al-Adel's document "Al Quaeda's Strategy to the Year 2020".[65][66] Abdel Bari Atwan summarizes this strategy as comprising five stages to rid the Ummah from all forms of oppression:
1.Provoke the United States and the West into invading a Muslim country by staging a massive attack or string of attacks on U.S. soil that results in massive civilian casualties.
I think that's where the problem came in. The U.S. was provoked, and we fell for it - hook, line, and sinker. We've always had a choice, and the war has been brought to the U.S. because of the choices we've made. We allow ourselves to be manipulated far too easily. That's been the problem with U.S. foreign policy ever since World War II.
I don't think we should play the victim card here unless we are willing to accept responsibility for putting ourselves in a position to be provoked by having troops and CIA operations all over the globe. Not saying it was done willfully to expand empire . . . but certainly history will judge if we over-reacted to the threat of Communist aggression or if we didn't have sense enough to take our marbles and go home soon enough. Maybe neither was the case. I do recall the drawdown of military strength and the closing of bases during the Clinton administration. Perhaps then it was already too late. The first World Trade Center attack (the truck bombing) occurred in 1993. We were under seige before we could complete our withdrawal, if indeed we were going to withdraw. History confounds us with all the "ifs" don't it? [:D]
The main problem in our dealings with the rest of the world, particularly ultra-religious regions like the Middle East, is that they essentially view America as hypocritical. We Americans tend to treat hypocrisy with a nod-and-a-wink, but in other areas of the world, hypocrisy is viewed as a HUGE sin. Most Americans don't seem to understand that, and that's why they'll never understand who America's enemies are and why they fight against us. Even our own political leaders don't seem to understand this, even those who supposedly went to Ivy League colleges and should know better. The simplest solution and the perfect plan for peace is to be absolutely consistent in all our policies and stop being hypocritical. But do you think our government will ever learn this? Doubtful.
We've always claimed to be fighting for freedom and making the world safe for democracy, but we've also supported military regimes in other countries which are/were decidedly not free. That just by itself brands us as hypocritical and makes us look bad to the rest of the world.
Heck, Saudi Arabia is probably the most oppressive, tyrannical government on Earth, yet our government kisses up to them. However, we're against Iran because they're oppressive?
We've kissed up to Communist China while declaring the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire" because they were Communist. The same President who called the USSR the "Evil Empire" also made deals with Iran, which was still our enemy back then, but not really.
I don't know that we overreacted to Communist aggression, but I think our policy in that area was inconsistent and contradictory. It seemed that our government couldn't make up its mind whether to shit or get off the pot. Containment was a policy that led to many strange bedfellows.
Honestly speaking, I think our current enemies would have respected us more if we just engaged in open warfare and conquest against Communist nations, rather than limited wars, wars by proxy, and all that covert bullshit that the CIA became famous for. At least it would be more honest. Rigging elections, staging military coups, puppet governments, and war by proxy just looks so dishonorable, weak, and cowardly. That's how they see us, and that's why they think they can win against us.
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