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This will be my last post in this thread, I've got midterms to deal with and you are just arguing in circles without intent to listen to my actual words.
Here's an example of how you create a false archtype in your head of my belief system, then later argue I'm not being consistent when I don't abide by the construct you created:
I state that I'm not going to express righteous indignation at anyone because foreign leaders aren't beholden to me and, regardless, righteousness is a relgious term.
Somehow this bounces around in your head and comes out like this:
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Originally posted by Lebell
As you’ve pointed out, you have no problem that foreign governments have their own interests at heart.
Based on that twist of my statement, you ask me this:
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Why then is it ok for others to work for their interests while we don’t work for ours?
So now I have to reiterate myself or risk being labeled as inconsistent. Here goes:
I didn't say I condoned the behavior of leaders in foreign nations--just that I'm not going to take a religious/moral highground stance against them.
They don't share my belief system and aren't even supposed to representative of it--unlike the leaders in my country.
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Thank you for a great example of the kind of strawman argument I’ve come to expect from you.
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From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Main Entry: righ·teous
Pronunciation: 'rI-ch&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: alter. of earlier rightuous, alteration of Middle English rightwise, rightwos, from Old English rihtwIs, from riht, noun, right + wIs wise
1 : acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2 a : morally right or justifiable <a righteous decision> b : arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality <righteous indignation>
3 slang : GENUINE, GOOD
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In otherwords, argue with the definition of a word instead of the intent. And you
still didn’t answer my question about whether or not you also passed moral judgement on Blair, Chiraq, et al.
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I also didn't say my country's leaders shouldn't persue the interest of my nation. What I did say is that the people weren't told the truth so they could deduce whether our current actions really are in the best interest of our nation. Many people who follow geopolitics closely realize that our current course of action isn't in our long term interest.
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Your opinion, not fact.
What is closer to the fact is that Bush and Blair probably told the truth as they understood it from the intelligence community. Or should I dig out the quotes from the Clintons, Gore, etc. saying the
exact same thing, that Saddam was a very real threat to the U.S.?
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Whatever else may happen in the long term, it ought to be fairly obvious that neither the Iraqis nor the US public is benefitting in the short term. Corporations, in contrast, are benefitting from what is going on. So if you are the CEO of a major corporation, I'm confused how you can construe the current activities as being in your "best interest."
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Again, your opinion.
If you are accusing me of watching too much CNN, perhaps you better check your own viewing habits.
I continue to maintain that Iraq is better off and that vast strides have been made to restore the country. Religious freedom is a reality, power levels are up beyond pre-war levels, schools and hospitals are being rebuilt as is the rest of the country’s infrastructure. And it is very likely that the US will turn over control of the government to the Iraqis sometime this year.
All this less than a year after the war started.
Now I know this is hard for our 30 second sound bite society to understand, but this is actually happening very fast.
It took us something like 20 years or more to turn over control to Japan and Germany (sorry, don’t remember the exact numbers). Heck, we are STILL in Germany.
So, yes, I think things are better right now for Iraq.
As to corporations profiting, Fina-Total was set to make several
billion dollars profit so long as Saddam stayed in power, as were German and Russian firms. So to argue that corporations are
profiting, strikes me as non-sensical.