Why is it that everyone in the military talks about fighting for our freedoms. Unless you were in the military in the early 1940's, you simply fought for US interests.
That is about the most uninformed statement I have ever heard. Would you like to break it dwon war by war with me?
During WW2 Churchill was constantly worried about the prospect of the Soviet Union not returning territories it was liberating from Nazi Germany to their rightful owners. Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine...the list is extremely long. I have Bulgarian friends my age that were raised in Communist Bulgaria. They are both PhDs working at Ford right now--because communism collapsed and their freedom was restored.
Korea and Vietnam were both fought to contain communism. Neither country had a single resource of other interest for us. They were fought to contain communism. 90,000 Americans perished in those two wars. You cannot expect a western type of victory--but both of those wars did prove to be victories in the grand scheme. They demonstrated to the Soviets that they could not win a conventional war. They distracted the Soviets from becoming an economic power--and that fact led to their eventual collapse, less than 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War. That's a spit in a bucket--it's been over 19 years since I went to Iraq the first time.
China has learned the lesson that the Soviets did not--military power is second to economic power. China has, since the Vietnam War, focused primarily on her economic strength. China owns most of our national debt in fact. We hate each others guts, but are tied together by the US debt.
Moving forward, the Middle East wars look like simple oil wars, but they are not. The fact is, those countries NEED to sell their oil to survive. Oil has almost nothing to do with it. They cannot NOT sell their oil to us, anymore than we can cannot BUY it from them. In fact, it's worse for them. We DO have other options. They know this. If they were to get stubborn enough, they would make the other options economically viable and cut their own throat. It's simple economics. They wield no power with their oil because selling it is necessary for their own survival--and they are in debt inspite of their oil.
The interesting thing about these two conflicts--Iraq and A-stan, is that Obama is elected and suddenly no longer talking about pulling out. He took office, suddenly was confronted with the real facts and is quadripoling the forces in A-stan. A-stan means absolutely nothing to American interests unless you are interested in importing opium. What it is--it's the hathery of the new world threat--terrorists. I don't have to tell you the damage that will be caused if this threat isn't addressed. It took a few guys with box cutters to wipe out the World Trade Center. It hasn't happened since because those guys you sneer at
are actually out there protecting us. There is no comfortable spots for terrorists--our guys are chasing them with every means available to keep us safe. They are doing it 8,000 miles away. That's better than the firefighters and EMTs cleaning it up right here.
Every morning that you wake up and
don't read about several hundered Americans dying in a stadium or building or on a bridge or whatever--it's because Americans wearing camoflauge utilities and carrying rifles are stalking out the caves and hiding places of the assholes trying to plan, and praying for, our demise. Those assholes have gone from living in condos and convincing ignorant young aimless youths to give their lives for a distorted and immoral enterprise, to living in caves like hunted rats. 8 years and no repeats--that safety was bought by the human lives of the people you spurn.
America, since the Spanish American War, has always gone to war with the noblest of intentions. It has to be, because it ALWAYS requires congresses approval. Congress always has the power to do anything they want. They have to be convinced that a war is necessary for it to continue. YOU don't have to be convinced though. But you might be if you studied on it. If you were forced to vote on it, and someone on your staff delivered the facts to you, you would have a different opinion.
Myself--I consider your signature to be completely uninformed and out of line and I am asking you to remove it.