sgtdub

29 January 2007, A War of Words.
I started blogging in June 2006, as a way to let family and friends know I was doing ok during this deployment. As I have mentioned on several occasions, I'm a procrastinator by nature, ask Mrs. Dub. With this in mind, a blog site was the best, fastest, most efficient way for me to communicate with everyone back home. One post, everyone who wants it, gets it. At that time, I had only been introduced to one other blog, Bob on the Fob. This was a soldier in Iraq. Now around July, he stop posting. I don't know why, but I hope it was because he went home, safely. Since then, and up to today, I keep current on over 50 different blogs from people all over the world, literally. I read over 40 every day, (when I remember to pay the internet bill and they remember to turn it on). This is indeed an amazing thing if you sit long enough to think about it.
There is an amazing exchange of ideas, of thoughts, of whims, of views, of everything you would want to find out there. One site, The Truth, seeks and encourages political exchanges every day. The amount of time he and others like him put into researching and producing an informative view puts me in awe. I love and encourage passion in views and feelings, as long as they are informative views and feelings. There should not be any doubt about where I stand on most views today. I'm pretty much conservative. Please note, that I did not say Republican or Democrat. I can stand before you and say that on my last ballot, as well as just about every ballot before it, I voted both Democrat and Republican. This really isn't an issue for me, because I look at the candidate's character, morals, values and then decide. I believe if you are "party-line" then you are either not informed or a zombie walking the earth. I believe there is a time for dialogue, a time for war, a time for peace, but one solution will never work for every situation. You can not properly fix a water leak with a hammer.
I'm reading other blogs and seeing bloggers engaged in debates. This is great, and yet is a problem. I have seen very few instances that a debate has led to one party or the other being swayed from their views. The best we can hope for is that each walks away with a little more insight. This is possible if you are open to such dialogue. If you are not, then I make the suggestion that you don't get involved to start with.
I believe most of America has learned lessons from Vietnam. The distinction has been made between the soldiers and the war. This is a great lesson. As I heard about the peace demonstration march on Washington this weekend, I was a little disheartened. When I heard Jane Fonda made an appearance my first thought was, "Great, within a few weeks I'll be called a baby killer". This was wrong of me, and even though you didn't know it, now you do and I'm sorry for that thought.
I believe in your right for freedom of speech, as long as you respect my freedom of speech too. Dari from Charmed and Dangerous was at that march. When she first told me she linked me to her site and her other site, a peace activist blog site, I must admit I was taken back just a bit. I began reading her site. She doesn't attack me, she doesn't judge me, and I don't judge her either.
People I do judge are people like Jane Fonda, Sean Penn and Jesse Jackson. I don't believe these people, at all. I see them, I hear them, and all I see is people stuck on an ego trip, it's all about them. I believe real people are concerned, but it doesn't include those three. I believe if you say something is broken, wrong, immoral, unjust, then explain it and offer suggestions. My mind works in analogies. If your television isn't on the right channel, you get up and change it. You have just found a solution and put it to work. The war in Afghanistan is considered a just war, why? What makes it different from Iraq? Because the terrorist network was in Afghanistan. Check out the FBI, CIA yearly reports. There are terrorists on every Continent and many countries in the world. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, France, Italy, Germany, South America, the United States. There isn't a demographic workup of what a terrorist is, not race, not religion, not politics. What makes a terrorist is their character, their values. They want and crave destruction....of everything, of everyone. Their end state is death, destruction. So what dialogue do you sit down and discuss with this person, with this group? Let me know, I'll give it a shot. Some ask about North Korea. Kim Il Jong is another egotist. He is a threat in that he wants attention for himself. North Korea has been a threat since 1955. Let's look at this, he ain't going anywhere.
At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the peace activists were shouting, "No war for oil!!" Where is that slogan now? It vanished, why, because it was proven to be invalid. We haven't taken over the oil fields, we are attempting to make them vital and split the rewards up between the three sects in Iraq.
Our enemy isn't one particular race, religion, country, it's an ideology of death and destruction. I have had this discussion with many other soldiers, American, French, British. We aren't at war with Afghanistan, or with Iraq. The people of those countries aren't the enemy. Some of them are, but the majority of those we are fighting are from many different countries. Turning Iraq and Afghanistan into parking lots won't solve the problem. There isn't an easy solution to be found. Doing something is better than doing nothing. We can bring home all our troops, then what? We can build the Great Wall of China on the Mexican border, then what? The terrorist we fight today won't be satisfied. They won't lay down their arms and go home to their families, they will come after us, as they have done in the past, our embassies, our ships, our country. I read again tonight the comparison of World War II to the War on Terrorism. We won that war in five years, what's wrong now. Again, let me throw 16 million American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines at this problem, and I'll bet you we get it done too. Do you remember how we got into WW II. The war was waging long before December 7th. Pearl Harbor was our invitation to that war. Japan struck at us, yet we went after Germany too, why? Because the Axis network included Germany. We have to identify as many players in this as possible, and determine who is in it now, and who is on the bench. That's what we have done. I don't want to call this a game, because it isn't, but I'm cursed with those da#% analogies. Another argument is "This isn't a popular war!" I'm sorry, did I miss something? Who thought any war was popular? As I said at the beginning of this post, don't come to a debate if you aren't willing to listen and exchange. These are my views, I will respect your views too. Bring me your solutions, tell me a viable way to solve this problem we are facing today without war.