Monday, January 31, 2005
Johnathan's Ramblings on the Election
Ok, ok, I'll throw my two cents in...
While I do not particularly support the "war" or care a whole lot for Bush, I kind of agree with Victor on the elections in that I'm going to try and be optimistic about them. I'm pretty sure that the only people over there who DON'T want freedom are the insurgents (just look at the election turnout)... although if you think about it, that's what the insurgents claim they're fighting for: freedom from US occupation. Hell, for all we know, the insurgents could even want democracy, but they just hate the US, so they're gonna keep killin people until we leave.
Now, I aslo agree that we shouldn't just pack up and leave... I'm not too big on starting something you can't finish and the US has definately started something over there. I don't like the way some things have been handled (for example, the cases of torture... no human being deserves to be treated like that), but I feel that we have an obligation to help in getting these people on their feet.
I've been told by my military (intelligence) buddies that things are getting better over there and that the media is responsible for making it all negative (imagine that). I don't know if any of us can make a truly informed position on the situation over there because quite frankly, we're not THERE experiencing it first hand... we're HERE sitting in our comfortable computer chairs eating popcorn and watching/listening to random news stories here and there. My point is that we have no way of actually knowing whether the bad truly outweighs the good over there. I'm not saying we should just let the administration feed us BS, either, hehe, but I feel that there is probably a lot going on (good and bad) that we don't know about.
The bottom line: the war should have been handled differently, but it wasn't. There's nothing we can do now to change that other than help finish what we started. I think the elections were indeed a good step in the right direction and apparently (again, due to the high turnout of voters) most people over there DO want democracy. I think that when we've got them on their feet and decide to leave, the insurgency will more than likely die out due to lack of support and loss of their war cry.
¶ 11:50 PM
While I do not particularly support the "war" or care a whole lot for Bush, I kind of agree with Victor on the elections in that I'm going to try and be optimistic about them. I'm pretty sure that the only people over there who DON'T want freedom are the insurgents (just look at the election turnout)... although if you think about it, that's what the insurgents claim they're fighting for: freedom from US occupation. Hell, for all we know, the insurgents could even want democracy, but they just hate the US, so they're gonna keep killin people until we leave.
Now, I aslo agree that we shouldn't just pack up and leave... I'm not too big on starting something you can't finish and the US has definately started something over there. I don't like the way some things have been handled (for example, the cases of torture... no human being deserves to be treated like that), but I feel that we have an obligation to help in getting these people on their feet.
I've been told by my military (intelligence) buddies that things are getting better over there and that the media is responsible for making it all negative (imagine that). I don't know if any of us can make a truly informed position on the situation over there because quite frankly, we're not THERE experiencing it first hand... we're HERE sitting in our comfortable computer chairs eating popcorn and watching/listening to random news stories here and there. My point is that we have no way of actually knowing whether the bad truly outweighs the good over there. I'm not saying we should just let the administration feed us BS, either, hehe, but I feel that there is probably a lot going on (good and bad) that we don't know about.
The bottom line: the war should have been handled differently, but it wasn't. There's nothing we can do now to change that other than help finish what we started. I think the elections were indeed a good step in the right direction and apparently (again, due to the high turnout of voters) most people over there DO want democracy. I think that when we've got them on their feet and decide to leave, the insurgency will more than likely die out due to lack of support and loss of their war cry.
¶ 11:50 PM
