Every time I hear an author or speaker like D'Souza talking about how the only solution to the problem with Islamic fundamentalists is totally annihilation, that concerns me. There is no doubt that America is the greatest country on earth, and those of us lucky enough to live here should appreciate that everyday. But, for us to impose our way of life to everyone on earth is not right.
If it were as simple as America fighting for this grand idea of freedom for the world, without the corruption of money and power that some American politicians and big businesses strive for, then 100% of American's would support freeing the world. However, money, power, religion, political ideals, and control of resources is still the underlying motivation.
I would love to hear D'Souza's war plan for ridding the world of Islamic extremists. I mean, the detailed, actual war plan. Would he just send in a couple sharp shooters and take out the few bad guys? And after taking out that bad guy, would that bad guy's sons care? Would he have to take them out too? After taking out that guy and his 5 sons, would he then have to kill the mother as well? Wouldn't she be ticked about the loss of her family as well? How about uncles? etc. etc. etc. etc. D'Souza, and his type, are unrealistic. There is no way to strategically take out a few bad guys and rid the world of Islamic Fundamentalists. As soon as one of the "bad guys" were taken out, another would take his place instantaneously.
How did America become free and independent? Did somebody come into this country and impose freedom on us? No, it started from within. American's wanted America to be free of any parent country or external control and we made it happen. If people truly want freedom in their countries, then they will fight for it. And that fight from within will be more meaningful than if we go hand them "freedom." That doesn't mean we should let bad things happen when we see it. We should help when it's needed, but that help must be towards a realistic end.
America will win the hearts of the world's people when we care as much about the repression in Africa, for example, as we do in Iraq or Iran. If we are truly in the game of spreading freedom, then there are plenty more countries to spread freedom than the middle east. Let's get to it if that's what this is truly all about.
Great ideas. Great Questions. D'Sauza did suggest a plan that would capitalize on the dissatisfaction with the Iranian government from within. That had an amazing affect in Afghanistan. But at that time Afghanistan had the more total support of the effort than the Iraq operation had several years later. I think that in 2002 this writing had a different audience than it has today. Perhaps even last semester there was a different climate among the audience than there is now with the economy in the shape that it is in and America feeling differently about our government, we even have a different looking government now than we did last semester. But even in all the news these days about the bail outs, the big complanies, Wall Street, the Auto industry, Insurance Industry, we aren't hearing a whole lot about the military, has the spending there increased, decreased, do we have more or fewer people enlisting? What kind of shape are we in now? The one thing we have heard about is the shut down of certain military prisons. But it seems to me the picture isn't complete and we don't know where we stand. Taking into account that this was written in 2002, a lot has changed. In wars there is a mortal risk, yet the more recent operations our military has been engaged in there has been far less loss of life than in earlier wars, such as Vietnam and World War 2, when you consider that we were attacked in 2001 in the proportions that we were attacked prior to our involvement in World War 2, that would put the conflict in Africa a little more on the level of Vietnam and the war on Terror a little more on the level of WWII. America does better when she is unified in a common purpose. You are absolutely right about our freedom being something that we were willing to stand up for. And we wanted it so much that we were willing to take help from others who would help.
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