I usually stay out when the discussion gets this heated, BUT:
I think the respect and appreciation that I and others feel for members of our military will diminish if those soliders, sailors, etc start to adopt a "I'm better than you because I serve(d) and you didn't" attitude. Zoanas has not gone over that line, in my view, but he might be getting close.
As for deferring to the government's knowledge, I will do that as well and that is why I originally supported the war in Iraq. However, at some point the weight of the evidence has got to open your eyes. The US government's own expert (David Kay) has concluded, after searching Iraq and interrogating Iraqis and reviewing Iraqi records for months, that Iraq didn't have effective WMD weapons. Iraqi scientists have admitted as much. It turns out that our pre-war intelligence was flawed and, while maybe no Whitehouse aide instructed any CIA analyst what to write, the pressure to provide the desired conclusion was very high. When do you sit up and say "my government was wrong"? Does President Bush have to get on Larry King and admit it? Do you still think Nixon didn't order Watergate, or The Reagan Administration didn't support the contras, or that Clinton didn't have sex with Lewinsky? Being a loyal American doesn't mean not doing your own thinking. It means - to me - that initially you give your government the benefit of the doubt, but if it turns out they were lying or wrong, you call it as it is.
Quote:
Originally posted by ZOANAS
Also, I certainly never said you owed me a thing for my service to this country, but you can bet I'll let you know what I think about someone enjoying the freedom I helped provide, who doesn't seem to appreciate it. I earned that freedom. If you chose not to serve, that's for you to deal with.
As for Iraq's links to 9/11, again, I'll defer to the people we pay to know those things, and until I see differently, there is no conspiracy. I know it might not fit with your "inside knowledge" of all the "real" facts, but Iraq DID have over a decade to hide the WMD's. It's not like they're all stacked in a warehouse, with labels that say "Hidden WMD's" on them.
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