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Date Posted: 16:07:56 03/12/03 Wed
Author: X
Subject: America: Beacon of Freedom or Misguided Rogue

I am an American citizen and I have the utmost respect and love for my country. I have never once thought we were flawless and am well aware of the failures we have made. I can't, however, help but take some of the shots made at the U.S. during the recent debate personally. It is a serious charge against the President and the country to make claims that they are rogues, idiots, aggressors, oil mongers, and numerous other things. (And, it is, in my opinion, much worse to say, "George Bush is an idiot" then to say "This idea is mindless drivel." Ideas should be open target, people should not. George Bush is the U.S. president, and I think deserves a little bit more respect then that.)

It is a serious charge to say that the US brought terrorism onto itself. Despite what Goktimus Prime said, all terrorism is evil. Terrorism is an attack against a population of civilians in order to terrorize them. During the war of American Independence, we never went over and tried to destroy Big Ben or blow up marketplaces in London. But I digress.

As of late, I feel the media outlets are demonizing the US. They constantly tout the country as being in defiance of the UN and against the world. They neglect to mention that we have 2-dozen or so nations supporting us, including Arab states, but choose to focus on France and Germany. They constantly paint George Bush as a leader gone power crazy who is going against the Majority. This is illustrated by how Nova said "Here, Here for the minority!" When, in fact, this is far from the truth. Last week, CNN focused on 10,000 protesters in London. That's a huge number, I admit, but they failed to mention the 40,000 at a "Pro-America" in a U.S. rally during the same time. Often, my local news covers the 10 people on the highway with signs that say "No blood for oil" but won't cover the 7,000 that showed up at a stadium with signs that said "We support our country”…and none of that is an exaggeration.

American celebrities are doing the same thing, speaking out against our country like we are responsible for the world’s ills. The peak of which was when an 80’s rock star (the name slips my mind at the moment) said she hoped “the Muslims win.” Debating whether it is the proper for the U.S. to do this or that is great; in fact it’s American. It’s the attacks against the country that should not be tolerated. There is a difference between someone disagreeing and a traitor. It is the same with the international community. I can respect differences in opinion, but when a country, like France, goes and tries to actively working against the US by under minding them and act and pursuing to get other countries to turn against us (as they are with the African countries), they no longer play the role of disagreeing friends, but become enemies.

The U.S. is verbally attacked because we have no “smoking gun” but, to paraphrase George W. Bush, it would be beyond horror if it came in the form of a mushroom cloud. I, for one, can’t sit around and wait for New York, Washington D.C., L.A., or any other U.S. city to be wiped off the map. The stakes are high. We are not talking thousands; we are talking about millions of civilian lives.

Let’s not entertain notions that if we become isolationists again, shutting out the world…that we will not be attacked because we just want peace. There is evil in this world and it doesn’t want peace. Not fighting is not the answer. Before WWII, when the Jews began to be discriminated against…they did not fight back, they did not resist…. they went along because they did not want to risk something worse happening. By playing the pacifist, millions of Jews died. The Germans didn’t go after them because they were sticking their noses in other peoples business, they didn’t go after them because they were violent or opposed the German government…they just went after them. Evil does not need a reason it just acts. If there is a lesson to be learned from history, it is that when you give in to the enemy, they just demand more. Giving in is never a solution.

After the WWII, Churchill wrote that the saddest thing was “this was the war that could have been prevented.” He knew that if countries had only saw the signs, if countries had not appeased Germany…if they were willing to do something preemptively…WWII would have been stopped, and millions would have been saved. Yet, we still hear people talk as if we can ignore problems and they will go away.

I, for one, can’t let history go by and say that we could have stopped a nuclear bomb from going off on American soil…or a dirty bomb…or a chemical or biological weapon attack. I can’t wait and have history say, “If they had only acted, millions would have been saved.” Saddam has the weapons; there is no disputing that. He has played games for long enough and it can’t go on any longer.

I believe history will look well upon the U.S. for taking their stand. It concerns me that so many seem to view the U.S. as a rogue or war hungry power…but sometimes leaders have to do what is right despite what people think, that is the true mark of a leader. American is a leader; we will do what we think and know is right. American will forever be a beacon of freedom and of hope, as long as we do that.

-X

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