Definitely true.
absolutely.
The Mafia (till the late '90's)
I dont remember the Mafia killing innocents by the thousands. Or having much of a Political agenda at all. They didnt export their wars out of Italy and dont attack Political targets in foreign countries. A International criminal organization? Of course! , of which their are many. But not a "terrorist organization".
I hear ya, Rich. I think the war on terror is an inevitable fight. But i just don't understand why Iraq has anything to do with fighting terrorism. Check this out, this is what i posted in another thread....
This all comes back to the question of "how to win the war on terrorism" Flex. Let me ask you this, would we have been able to destroy Fascism in europe without invading Naxi Germany and removing its leaders by force,and then, forcing Democratic change? How about in Japan? The Islamic world is no different. The closed,tyrannical regimes that rule the Islamic world ARE the roots of terrorism. What we are trying to do is to encourage Democratic change in the Middle East because its the lack of Democracy and human rights that is the womb of terror.
Weve been thru this Saddam thing many times and Im not going to list the long pages of his crimes, violations, attempted assasinations of former US Preseidents, his use of WMDs, tortures and slaughters, the sad/sorry United Nations debacle in Iraq, the decade long shell game he played with his WMDs and the inspectors............
All I'll say is that if there is no "military option as a last resort" for characters like Saddam then we should just get out of the UN. We dont need it and its putting America at greater risk. Another "why Iraq" is because it sits in a very valuable piece of real estate. In one fell swoop we control much of the regions water and oil, have split/flanked our other enemies, and control both ends of the Persian Gulf. My only problem with all this is we stopped at Iraq. You win wars by going, and staying, on the offensive. Not by sitting and occupying while Iran and Syria are passing out bombs to terrorists at their borders. Lastly, and most important, we deposed Saddam by military force to show our enemies that we could! Yeah, we really can go 1/2 across the world and anhiliate a threatening countries military. Its nation Building thats difficult.
"Bush and his chronies have this 100% egocentrical view (egocentric means you think your culture is the "right" culture). They believe they're gonna march into Iraq, where Americans esp. are already hated, and implant a gov't that the people are just going to up and follow. Sorry Bush, doesn't work that way. Their deeply entrenched religious beliefs have been around WAY before democracy was invented. As fucked up as some traditions/beliefs/views/actions may be, these people have their set view of how life should be carried out, and THATS the way they're gonna live their lives.
Try telling people in China that Buddha isn't acceptable. Try telling people in India that Hinduism is wrong. Go tell the Pope there's no God.
Religion, ESPECIALLY in other countries besides the US, is the NUMBER ONE driving factor of every day life. Going into a country, bombing the hell out of it, killing some "bad guys" and trying to set up a new way of life for people who only know their own way of life just IS NOT going to work."
My point was that he tries to play off the War in Iraq like he cares that they have "freedom" and democracy. He says the reason they are fighting us is cuz "they hate the free lives we live". Thats BS. They hate us cuz we go in there and try to tell them how to live their lives. IMO the war shouldnt focus on Iraq...
.................Rich
