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wilbjammin · 11-23-2003, 02:03 PM

I went to a party last night and I saw my friend from high school that I haven't seen in years. He joined the National Guard and someone came up to him and started harassing him about national politics of war, about killing people, and was pretty rude about it all. I sat back and listened to my friend defend himself, saying some fairly sophisticated arguments like "I can lay down and protest here in Eugene, but doesn't real change come from within?" and "Well, now that we're in Iraq we can't just leave them because that would totally destabalize the Middle East and leave it much worse than we found it" The guy that harassed him continued to question my friends morals and ethics, and finally I said, "what do you suggest then? what are you doing about it? what is your opinion?"

He folded, he claimed that he didn't have an opinion, and quickly left our discussion to go to another part of the party. He kept looking at me and talking to his friend under his breath for the rest of the night, probably talking about me and how I attacked him. I actually genuinely wanted to hear an answer from him, I was surprised at how fast he backtracked.

I guess my question is - what do you all think? Is it fair to ask someone what they're doing about a problem that they have with something if they're harassing someone else about it? Is action necessary to go with a philosophy about politics if you are going to challenge someone else about their choices? Have you dealt with this before... and if so, how?

I'm not for war (and esp. this war), and neither is my friend. I just find it in poor taste to harass people who did not make the decisions to go to war. It occurred to me that the big push to the Vietnam War protests was to bring our men home (symbolized by those black armbands), but the big push against this war is the international implications of occupation and taking oil. Maybe we should focus more on the people over there and wanting them to come home alive and whole. I think we should remember that the people we send over to Iraq didn't make the policy, and if we have a problem with the policy we should do something about that policy.

So... there are some opinions, discuss:

11-23-2003, 02:03 PM	#1 (permalink)
wilbjammin * * *	A discussion about war gone bad I went to a party last night and I saw my friend from high school that I haven't seen in years. He joined the National Guard and someone came up to him and started harassing him about national politics of war, about killing people, and was pretty rude about it all. I sat back and listened to my friend defend himself, saying some fairly sophisticated arguments like "I can lay down and protest here in Eugene, but doesn't real change come from within?" and "Well, now that we're in Iraq we can't just leave them because that would totally destabalize the Middle East and leave it much worse than we found it" The guy that harassed him continued to question my friends morals and ethics, and finally I said, "what do you suggest then? what are you doing about it? what is your opinion?" He folded, he claimed that he didn't have an opinion, and quickly left our discussion to go to another part of the party. He kept looking at me and talking to his friend under his breath for the rest of the night, probably talking about me and how I attacked him. I actually genuinely wanted to hear an answer from him, I was surprised at how fast he backtracked. I guess my question is - what do you all think? Is it fair to ask someone what they're doing about a problem that they have with something if they're harassing someone else about it? Is action necessary to go with a philosophy about politics if you are going to challenge someone else about their choices? Have you dealt with this before... and if so, how? I'm not for war (and esp. this war), and neither is my friend. I just find it in poor taste to harass people who did not make the decisions to go to war. It occurred to me that the big push to the Vietnam War protests was to bring our men home (symbolized by those black armbands), but the big push against this war is the international implications of occupation and taking oil. Maybe we should focus more on the people over there and wanting them to come home alive and whole. I think we should remember that the people we send over to Iraq didn't make the policy, and if we have a problem with the policy we should do something about that policy. So... there are some opinions, discuss: __________________ Innominate.