Archie said:
People who claim to be Americans - who hide behind the freedoms and benefits provided by the United States - and then condemn anything and everything done to protect the U. S. while simultaneously ignoring those who would destroy this nation. Absolutely unbelievable.
This is a strawman. Obviously no one here opposes defending the US when it is attacked, and no one advocates ignoring those who would destroy the US. But the US is based on the principle of inalienable human rights. If the US gives up that principle, then America dies, regardless of whether something called "America" continues to exist on the land where America once stood. Those of us who love the principles America was founded upon and want to protect them are hardly anti-American.
"ABC new reports..." and of course, ABC news and the 'media' in general have no bias, no agenda, and are not the propaganda wing of the Democratic party.
Even if that were true -- and I think you're making way too strong of a statement -- this bias would be balanced out by GOP/neocon propaganda outfits like Fox News and much of talk radio.
Covert operations to destabilize a hostile government may not be 'in good taste'. However, they are designed to accomplish a specific mission with as little damage to the inhabitants of that country as possible. I suppose one alternative to the 'dirty tricks' campaign claimed by the news report is to simply bomb Iran into a slag heap. No doubt that would be condemned as 'over-reaching'.
I agree that nonviolent covert operations are not terrorism and are preferable to actions that would kill many innocent people. But
why should the US be messing around with Iran in the first place? Sure, we should keep an eye on them, and on every other country for that matter. But unless we have reason to believe that Iran is going to attack the United States, Iran is not our problem. The same goes for Iraq, which was never any threat to the US.
Why do you think countries like Switzerland and Finland have no significant enemies? It's because they mind their own business. If the US government would learn to mind its own business, that would make us much safer than our current policy of playing World Policeman and International Bully.
So the preferred alternative of the left is to simply wait until a foreign power power decides to attack or destroy American assests - like the USS Cole, various U. S. military sites, embassies and the World Trade Center - and then find some way to blame the pro-American sector of U. S. politics for the damage.
You're seeing everything in terms of black and white, right and left. What about
traditional conservatives who believe that a policy of non-interventionism is in America's best interest? This nation's Founders advocated non-interventionism. Were they "anti-American leftists" as well?
I fail to see what is so "pro-American" about meddling in other nation's affairs all around the world (especially in the Middle East), stirring up hornets' nests and making countless enemies who
want to attack us. The more enemies America makes, the more our national security is in jeopardy (especially with our porous borders). No one is saying that America should not retaliate if attacked or stave off an imminent threat -- that's why I supported the US invasion of Afghanistan to hunt down Osama. But that's the
only thing our military should be used for.
For those anti-American folks, please take your intellect, your fortunes, your superior morality and go elsewhere. Please quit trying to destroy my country.
No one is trying to destroy
our country except two groups of people:
(1) The enemies that the US government makes through its interventionist foreign policies (which sometimes involve the sponsorship of egregious human rights violations). In spite of the threat they pose, these people have almost no chance of destroying the US. They would need a whole lot of nukes to do that.
(2) Americans on both the "right" and the "left" who support violations of the principles enshrined in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. If those principles are abandoned, then America will continue to exist in name only. These people have a GOOD chance of succeeding. And they are succeeding.
The point is that you can justify a wrong in many ways but doing so by pointing out the wrongs of others completely unrelated to the specific situation is retarded.
