Besides which, this being my own personal blog, and I’ve got a pretty thick skin. As long as you’re open-minded and express yourself intelligently, I’m game to hear what you have to say, be it left-wing, right-wing, up-wing, or down-wing.

Election after election this country splits amazingly almost exactly down the middle. That means that (statistically speaking) your political opinion will piss off half the country, and endear you to the other half. The problem is, that the half that you piss off will be vehement and beligerant and ugly. They’ll eventually make the half that adores you as a political pundit sick of hearing from them and go away.

Or maybe not.

Many people are also still stuck in the WWII mindset. There we went to war to fight someone who needed fighting (he also started it) and WERE greeted as liberators. And then after the war Europe emerged has a haven for democracy and freedom. So why shouldn’t the same thing have happened in Iraq?

Well for starters those countries had been invaded by an outside force so were liberating them from someone else. Most of our soldiers fighting had ancestors from that area. And before WW2 the US had been all about staying out of other people’s(Europe’s) business (for the most part) so everyone fully expected us to leave when the job was done. Plus Europe had been a democracy and free place before Hitler so it just got better afterwards. It didn’t emerge because of us. (we have democracy and freedom because of Europe as the ideas we stole from our ancestors there).

So Iraq and Afghanistan were cast in the same light. However, these countries were only invaded by an outside force when we showed up and the majority our the people in the US have no connection to the area and no understanding of the culture or history. Also, for the last 60 years the US has been doing whatever it wants.

I’ve always been opposed to the war in Iraq. I am pretty sure some of my family (particularly my extended family) are some of the fair weather supporters though I tend to not talk to them about politics as its safer. I kind of support the action in Afghanistan. There was an existing movement already fighting there so we were helping to bring about change, not causing change ourselves. I equate our role in Afghanistan similar to the role of the French in the Revolutionary War. At least during the fighting. The French then stayed out of our way for the most part. Course, our first quasi war was with France so maybe the Afghans will get ticked at our meddling at some pt.