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Originally Posted by Antitrust32
You make some valid points about the core of out country, but I think that people should have some patriotism. I mean, terrorists have claimed war against the US, and all some people do over here while they live comfortably and without the fear of being bombed at the super-market, is bash the government and military actions.
While, using hindsight, invading Iraq has been a big problem for our country and was probably not the right move to do (especially that WMD crap), I will always back my government and military for trying to protect us US citizens. And I honestly believe that they (as in the govnt) made the decision to invade Iraq to protect us. I really dont give all the conspiricy theorist's a minute of my time.
There has not been a terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11, and that is not from lack of trying by the terrorists. It is because of the actions of our government and military.
I really feel upset when people bash our military and it's leaders when they are trying to end terrorism, maybe not in the correct way, but the terrorists are so very dangerous action needed to be taken and it was.
Believe me, I dont like Bush... being a gay woman who works in the gambling industry, I think Bush has a very closed minded views on social issues and it upsets me. But I am all for being and feeling safe where I live, even if I cant get married!
But hey, this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to one, I just feel uneasy when people dont support the war on terror.
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I think that we agree more than we think we do -- and that it was just the way you said the original comment that tipped the whole thing.
I agree about patriotism, but what is patriotism? (Funny enough, I started writing a song called "Little Patriot" the other night talking about this exact thing....). Do you have to fall rank and file with your leaders to be patriotic? Do you have to support everything a leader does without question to be patriotic? Is questioning your government and not supporting a leader you don't believe in being patriotic? I contend that no, no, and yes are the answers there.
Being anti-Bush or anti-this-war may not be patriotic if we lived in a different society, but because it is America -- being proud to use one's freedom of speech against authority, in my eyes, is a perfect example of patriotism. Some people don't say it the right way and they don't present their ideas the right way, but being anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-killing saddam does not make one unpatriotic. I would say that cherishing your rights as an American to question things your government does that you don't believe in is just as patriotic as putting an American flag magnet on your pickup before driving it over a Dixie Chicks CD.
I guess I just feel that "patriotism" has been co-opted and redefined by Republican hacks and that they've created and maintained the "with us or against us" mentality. That says that you either 1.) support it, or you 2.)hate your country. That's Ann Coulter logic, which is to say, terribly faulty. Our country is not, and has never been that black and white, that dichotomous...and it never will be.
Is it unpatriotic to be disgusted watching a tyrant get lynched? Is it unpatriotic to admit that he is one of the worst human beings on the planet, but that yet he still does not deserve to be treated that way? Is it unpatriotic to not support the war or its architects, yet be disgusted and shattered every time a U.S. serviceperson is killed or maimed?
The Ann Coulters of the world want us to believe that it's all or nothing. That it is a liberal smokescreen to support the troops but not the war. I feel it is exercising every duty, and right, of an American to call attention to something I feel is inherently un-American while still supporting the Americans that are carrying it out and not wishing any harm upon them.
If that makes me and many of my fellow anti-war players unpatriotic, then we were never talking about the same word to begin with because that kind of patriotism is not one to be proud of.