A Momentary Descent into Politics

One of my online friends who happens to live in Washington DC posted a blog about her exciting day protesting a laundry list of things, but primarily the Iraq war. She said the speakers would stir the crowd by getting them to chant mantras such as "violence and occupation do not lead to liberation that's bullshit! get off it! this war is for profit!" To those who are of the liberal way of thinking I have to ask you... you don't really believe that shit, do ya? Maybe you ought ask the average Iraqi what they think, before you blindly follow these liberal noise makers... I'll admit that I'm not thrilled with our leadership, but I know that nothing worth doing in the history of the world came without bloodshed and strife before it was over. War sucks, but until we humans all change our nature it will be the primary catalyst for change. Especially in a country that was held by a tyrant who thought nothing of sacrificing his own people for his own gains and who raised his sons to rape and murder them for sport. Change had to come there. Disagree if you like, as it is your right as an American. There were plenty of people who disagreed with our own fight for freedom over 230 years ago. Ironically, they didn't have the right to protest their government until the long bloody revolution we undertook was successful. For all we know, the Civil Rights movement would never have happened if not for a war that had families killing each other over, among other things, the practice of slavery. President Lincoln could have said "Let the riff-raff go, they aren't worth dying for." Of course he didn't. Should he have, for the sake of saving lives, not gone to war with his own people to preserve the Union and the liberty of all of it's citizens? I seriously doubt that anyone, besides some of the more crimson of necks, would say we'd be better off as two nations without equality for all of our fellow man. What? You say that's different? Because it was on our soil? Ok then, how about another war, in the Mediterranean. One that I can say without hesitation, was for our profit. At least in part it was. It was immortalized in song. It was even recently in the news, thought you might not have realized it. What conflict is this? It's the first war on terror. The campaign against the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean Sea off of Libya... you know, the "Shores of Tripoli." Most politicians of the day wanted to appease the Muslim pirates with cash, but Thomas Jefferson, who had read the Quran and had some knowledge of the Islamic mind, knew that if he didn't deal with them forcefully and resolutely they would always be a thorn in our side, if not a dagger. So he sent warships to the region to preserve, not only the safety of our people, but our commerce. You can guess the rest... I'll leave you with this from George Santayana (December 1863 – September 1952): "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes."

Just something to think about.