Yesterday I posted a comment I received from my other site Donkephant, in which a man by the name of dEG attempted to explain why “if your not with us your against us” is a completely rational line of thinking. I attempted to deconstruct the flawed logic of that statement in my previous post “If you are not with us, you are AGAINST us!” if you didn’t get a chance to read it, you might want to for reference. Last night I forwarded the link to that post and received another rebuttal from him. This time I find out that he is a soldier in the Army.
I would like to share with you an inside look into what I think is a classic example of what is wrong with this war. Please note that this individual take umbrage to my lack of appreciation for the military and the men and women who make the ultimate sacrifice. For the record, I have worked for a non-for-profit organization exclusively for veterans for the last 10 years. Every single day I help those men and women that serve our great country. My Father served in the Air Force for 6 years in England. My Grandfather flew for the RCAF and was awarded the Victorian Cross by Queen Elizabeth herself. I have the utmost respect and humility for the men and women that serve in our military. Now on to dEG’s reply.
you know, i totally 100% understand your line of thinking. i completely see your argument, and i understand you feel it is quite valid. however, i totally 100% DISagree, and am completely lost at the same time…
how in the world can you defend these people? there is a whole group of people in this world who believe that they will have a one way ticket to heaven if they make theirselves martyrs, killing how ever many as they can while killing theirself also. and your arguments support their actions. not only have you chose to support their actions, you seem to have justified them…along with justifying the 9/11 attacks.
If you read my article in no way shape or form have I justified the attack on 9/11. I notice he uses the phrase “group of people” and I couldn’t agree more. It is a group of people not a country of people. Yet a country suffers today under the brutal occupation of our military. I do not support the insurgency or any of it’s actions. I also think it is important that we understand two wrongs make a damn fine mess. A quote from my article yesterday, “The point is this, if someone comes in your front yard and kills your pet, you do not go back to their house and murder the entire family. We have a right to “defend” our country. In this day and age “defend” means killing the enemy at any cost on any soil with as many civilian deaths as necessary.” I do not believe what is being carried out in Iraq today is a measured response to anything. Why are we there again?
you know what makes me sad? frustrated? and pure pissed off? the fact that i am serving you, protecting you, both now, and for what could possibly happen in the future if these people are not stopped. that’s what is sad. it’s sad that you, an obviously freedom loving, educated individual, whom has the freedom to make such choices, isn’t even grateful for the sacrifices we soldiers make.
these people do hate us. they hate us for what we stand for. have you ever traveled to saudi arabia? egypt? morocco? iran, iraq, etc.??? you should try it. maybe then you’ll see why i stand for what i stand for.
This appears on the surface to be an attempt at demonizing a regional culture by using the words, “these people.” I’m pretty sure if I visited the countries listed above my first instinct would not be to shoot and torture it’s inhabitants. This individual seems to believe that terrorists are not individuals but more of a dark veil of hatred that infects and consumes entire countries. Conveniently the argument of “group of people” has now expanded to entire countries.
for example, in egypt, if you’re christian, you must be marked with a tattoo at an early age. to be seperated and treated worse. sure, they have freedom of religion, but is it really? in almost every muslim country, women are required to cover almost every part of their body. that’s sad. very sad. not only that, they’re free of course, to not cover all in some of those countries, but if they don’t cover all, they’re harassed. the list goes on, women shouldn’t drive, vote, hold certain jobs, blah blah blah. they can’t drink alcoholic beverages, eat certain foods, watch certain things, read certain things, and on and on and on. fact of the matter is, if you go to these countries, you can be jailed or worse if you bring remnants of your free country into theirs.
they are afraid of the u.s. citizens, or british citizens, or any other free citizen, which they call infidels. they are afraid they will bring ideas of democracy, and complete and total freedom into their land. they’re afraid they will lose control. but at the same time, they infiltrate every large city around the world and are working on smaller ones now. they want to spread their message of hate and controlled living across the board. i for one, have volunteered to put a stop to that.
i am protecting your very right to blog about this matter.
i respectfully disagree. i hope you will sit back and think of the sacrifice i am making for you while i venture to iraq soon, leaving behind my wife, family, and friends, just to protect you and your right to live free. upon my return, i will certainly think about the rights i protected while sacrificing a large chunk of time from my life.
I do have a problem with any repression of any person in any country. I do not however have any problem with differences in cultures. At this point I would hope most of the world is afraid of the US and Britain. We have spent trillions of dollars and untold millions of lives kicking ass for 200 years. If they aren’t afraid of us now, they simply are not paying attention. “Afraid of democracy” I wonder why that would be?
-30,000 people killed by guns within the United States every year
-Corruption runs rampant throughout our government
-Alcohol abuse
-Drugs
Are just a few examples of why this might be. Now he has the “group of people” that turned into countries that are now “infiltrating” every city in the world. Who sounds afraid of whom?
Personally I don’t see how he is protecting my right to blog about this matter. If he were doing that then he would be lobbying for Net Neutrality. I don’t see how killing Iraqi’s is going to save my Internet from the congressmen.
While my friend dEG professes to respectfully disagree, I see very little respect and much more fear and anger.
As for his tour in Iraq that is approaching I have only this to say.
“dEG be swift, be decisive, be honorable, be true. When the shit hits the fan keep your head low and protect your brothers in arms. I do not envy the task you are about to face. I have nothing but respect for your answer to the call of duty. Please take my most sincerest thanks with you as you go. And maybe, just maybe I am fighting for your right to live a full happy life with your family and not to die in an unjust war.”