Bless America, indeed.
Who could do anything but love us?
We eradicated slavery, only to keep oppressing an entire race of people that are supposedly "created equal." We let the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor so that we'd have justification for saving Churchill from Hitler. We brought an end to a Cold War that we started so that we could make Russia safe for democracy, paving the way for a depression that they still haven't come out of.
We supplied chemical weapons to Iraq so that they might stave off the Iranian evildoers. Now, we will go to war ourselves to make sure Saddam doesn't use these weapons against us. We stationed troops in Saudi Arabia so that we might control Middle Eastern oil, then wondered why these Muslim radicals were so upset.
We trained Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants -- even sold the man an airplane -- and wondered how the terrorists became strong enough to attack us. We watched the Philippines foil an Al-Qaeda plot in 1995, then stared in amazement as they carried out that same plan on nyneleven. We saw one of our nation's biggest magazines run a cover story on airplanes being used as missiles, then said we couldn't imagine such a thing happening six years later.
We attack Afghanistan because they harbor terrorists, yet we're allies with three of the most terror-safe nations on Earth -- Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Great Britain. Now, we're going to attack a nation that has fewer Al-Qaeda operatives than we do. And we'll do so even without evidence or UN consent, because...well, they're just evil.
The Bush administration has stolen an election. They have allowed our nation to be attacked so that they would have an excuse to carry out the two military exercises (Afghanistan and Iraq) that were outlined during their 2000 campaign. They have taken one radical, rights-violating regime in Afghanistan and replaced it with another. They have taken our civil liberties, and now they're spying on their own citizens in the name of "safety."
We're being controlled by fear. The similarities between Bush and Hitler are, at this point, staggering. Both were democratically elected. Both brewed fear in the minds of their people. Both gradually took away the rights of their people. Both engaged in racial and religious profiling (Hitler with Jews, Bush with Muslims), and both eventually took their show outside of their own borders.
If we continue on our current path, the rest of the world is going to hate -- and rightfully so. The Russians and Chinese are already working together to prevent us from exerting influence in Central Asia, and the two of them together would be a daunting challenge, especially when other frustrated nations line up to join them. It's going to be us against the world, and we don't seem to care, because we're convinced of our own invincibility.
The economic and social debacles that took place in a "liberated" Russia over a decade ago should be a reminder to us that not every nation wants to run things our way -- and not all of them can. We assume that when we make other nations "safe for democracy," they want to embrace it -- but that assumption has been proven horribly wrong, and it will be proven wrong again.
Maybe we really believe that we're doing the right thing (a scary thought). Or maybe we WANT to make every other nation weaker, so that we may rule the world. Whatever the case, we're in the wrong.
This nation was allegedly founded by people seeking to escape oppression, yet our entire national history has been one of oppressing others. We all but eradicated the Indians, and we've forced the black race into a hole so deep that they can't possibly recover. We haven't gone much more than a generation without a major conflict since our inception, and those who remember Vietnam clearly want to revisit that lovely situation again in 2003.
How can we claim to be the land of the free when we're taking rights away from our own people and imposing our will against the rest of the world? We're going against everything this nation was built on, and it will be our own fault if we fall as a result.
God didn't bless America -- because America believes it IS God to the world. And anyone who believes in God (or even those who, like me, don't) should know that worship of a false idol is a sin and a half -- especially when your object of adulation is yourself.
Such blasphemy will, according to traditional belief of any denomination, land the violator in hell, which may or may not be the same as spending an eternal NASCAR weekend with Trent Lott. If we continue trying to rule the planet ourselves, hell is exactly where we're headed.
And those of you who don't at least speak up and TRY to stop it are going to share in the blame. Contrary to what you've been told in the last 15 months or so, patriotism does not equal blind support of your government. Patriotism is knowing what is best for your country, and that includes calling out your leaders when they cross the line.
The line has been crossed several times over -- and sure, we can make a change in 2004, but if we wait that long, we may have run out of time. Saddam Hussein is a dick -- but he's been a dick within his own borders ever since we put the smack down 11 years ago. He is nowhere near anything resembling a threat to us right now, and if Bush goes in, he'll not only be setting a really bad precedent, he'll have attacked as many nations in two years as Hussein has in 30.
All this madness needs to stop NOW. Make yourselves heard -- or be willing to accept what happens when the hunter becomes the hunted. The pendulum always swings back further the other way. It's up to us to decide if it's going to swing back and hit us or not.
The only nation in need of a regime change is us.
-- O
6:58:02 AM 
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