Originally posted by Goblin
"Ummm... Your one of those peace toting, marijuna smoking, fruity, hippy people aren't you?"
Well, let's see. Since you've decided to turn an intellectual discussion about issues into a personal attack, I guess I'll respond.
Re: "peace toting"... What the fuck does that mean? "Peace promoting" perhaps? A bastardization of the "gun toting" metaphore? I'll say "guilty as charged" to being a promoter of not killing innocent civilians in a pointless war. Nor expecting others to go off and die for me in foreign lands.
What the cheerleading war mongers and pre-emptive stike junkies never seem to grasp about the peace protestor is that peacenicks are taking the MORE COURAGEOUS ROUTE. By virtue of his position, the peacenick is saying he's willing to put his own life on the line rather than sending others off to do the fighting for him.
If you served as you suggest, I give you my heartfelt admiration and gratitude. But keep in mind, you got paid. The peacenick is willing to risk his own life for principle alone so that others don't have to.
Re: "marijuana smoking"... An interesting fact about marijuana: In the history of toxicological autopsies, NO ONE has ever OD'd on marijuana. It is the only mood modifier -- legal, or illegal -- that holds that distinction. My point? You've evidently tried to use this as an insult, so you're either a user of liquor -- which does more damage to the body AND the brain than most other mind altering substances -- or you're a bible thumping prohibitionist, which would explain your tendency to attack others personally rather than discuss ideas.
Re: "fruity". Is that a pass?
Re: "hippy" First, it's hippie, Einstein. Most "far more educated" people know that. It's also "you're", not "your" when you're calling someone a piece of shit. Oh, and by the way, most educated people don't refer to others on boards as pieces of shit. What say we try keeping the level of discourse civil, douchebag?
RE: "If that didn't happen throughout history you wouldn't be here typing on a computer today Hypocrite."
If what didn't happen? Technologically advanced societies marching in and murderously inserting their own culture? Had Western Europeans not slaughtered Native Americans by the millions and stolen their land we wouldn't have computers? That's just insane.
I'm a progressive, Goblin. Read the root: Progress. War is in no way a prerequisite to technological advancement, and is quite frankly an antiquated concept made functionally obsolete and no longer a viable option by our wonderful "advancements" in killing technology. We can kill the enemy more effectively than before... and so can they, unfortunately.
Most people living in a technologically advanced society have enough killing power in their everday lives -- from vehicles to household chemicals -- to take out a neighborhood if they so choose. War is quickly becoming a no win scenario, unless you're looking to just have everybody die, and occupying a country that didn't want you there in the first place is suicide.
RE: "The better people get the better jobs."
Better by what standard? In the case of Iraq, they have an adequately trained work force to do the majority of the rebuilding themselves. We're talking college educated white collar folks, as well as skilled tradesmen. What, are the American's "better" just because they're Americans?
RE: "Boo frickedie Hoo that Iraq can't step up to the plate. They should of done something themselves long ago."
Step up to WHAT plate? Getting rid of Sadam? I hate to break this to you, but the guy was a domocratically elected leader. Or at least as legitimately elected as our own president. A recent Gallup poll shows that 40% of the Iraqi population surveyed STILL wants him to be their leader-- and keep in mind this sample is of the more educated and "modern" of the population, as the backwater folks don't have phones, electricity or permenant homes, so they weren't even asked their opinion. Ergo the number is arguably low, given that if someone had come into my community, destroyed the water and elctrical systems, blew up my house and killed my family -- otherwise known as collatoral damage -- in the name of "liberating" me, I'd probably be inclined to want the old boss back, too. They're certainly doing something about determining their own destiny now, aren't they?
Plus, there's talk of him running for President.
http://www.rense.com/general57/rire.htm; http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread83367/pg1
What if the Iraqi's re-elect him?
Want to be all gonzo for the forceful overthrow of a leader? Start with George Bush. He's more universally hated around the world than Sadam ever was, and is definitely more potentially dangerous if he has the world's most powerful military at his disposal.
And imagine some pinhead in China who shares your aggressive views about militarily disposing of democratically elected leaders in other countries? That country CAN become the United States, you know. We're only a small fraction of the world population, and if China and the rest of the planet not in our current "coalition of the coerced" decided to impose their will as blindly as George Bush has... Let's just say it wouldn't be pretty.
RE: "Its cold... but its reality." DITTO. See above.
RE: "And your just a dreamer..." Like your 4th grade teacher tried to drill into your skull, it's YOU'RE, not YOUR. As in YOU ARE, only without the "A".
No, actually I'm a quite active, graduate degreed taxpayer who is willing to put his life on the line for the only world view that will prevent an impending conflict that will make World War II look like a training exercise.
RE:"...there is always someone bigger than can take your dream and shit on it. "
Yep, and that bigger someone is the World Community. Welcome to the 21st century.
The good news, Goblin, is that peacenicks are always willing to welcome the previously ill-informed into the fold, rather than simply trying to eliminate the opposition with aggression.
Hope to have you on board one day.
Peace, health and prosperity to you and all of your kind.