I know what your thinking, "It is my constitutional right to speak my opinion." It is what this site is for anyway. While it is okay to be opinionated, I hope after you read this you will see my point. Maybe not.
Don't say you're for the war.
If you are for the war, then go over and fight it. The minimum age to enlist is 17 and the maximum age is 35 years old, but for the Army National Guard, the maximum age for non-prior service enlistment is age 39. So, if your below the age of 39 and above the age of 17, and you are happy that we are in Iraq, then enlist. Yeah, the majority of the people will be turned away, but if you want a war, you should be willing to at least try and fight it.
Also, war isn't pretty. War isn't heroic and it isn't a freedom fight. War is bad and ugly and demonic. Why would you want to war?
Don't say you're against the war.
Because saying your against it isn't going to change anything. Picket all you like, the fact is that we are there, and whining about it isn't going to help.
And there are people there who didn't ask to be there, but they are. We have to give them our support. Remember Vietnam? Lots of people didn't support the troops then and a good precentage of them are living on the streets now. Even if you aren't for the war, don't say anything, because there are a bunch of 19 year old boys who are scared and homesick and the least they deserve is our respect and our appreciation.
So what should you do? You can't ignore the war obviously. Keep up with it, don't just block it out. But keep your opinions to yourself.
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This is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever come across. It is not disrespectful to soldiers to protest a war. To say so is giving the old "you are either with us or against us" attitude.
Besides it is the apathetic who are just as responsible for the worlds atrocities as those who commit them.
You think Hitler would have been able to do what he did if there wasn't a Germany that wasn't apathetic?
Rwanda happened because the rest of the world was apathetic.
Being apathetic is pathetic.
As Dante would say, (although i don't believe in hell), there is a special place in hell reserved for those who are apathetic and know that genocides and unjust wars go on but they do nothing about it.
According to your attitude if someone starts a war with us and you get killed I will not say anything because it is "politically incorrect and there is no point"
It is people like you that are the worst:
Jerks who discourage people who are trying to do the right thing and get in their way.
There probably is a special place in hell for losers who get in the way of people who are actually doing positive things for the world.
When people come and kill you we will all be silent. Because that is what you told us to do to everyone else.
I don't think this blog is very progressive. I would be a very depressed person if I thought that I could say nothing that might make a change. In my opinion, its the lack of discussion that got our soldiers in Iraq in the first place instead of celebrating the holidays with their families.
I actually kind of agree and we do need to discuss the topic. ALot of people blame the 'soldier' for the war when it is not their fault. While others just sit passively and complaine and talk and do not really do anything about it. That is what is sad and not progressive. As for people who are for war...well they are probably in the same boat as the anti war people they just express it diffrently... too agressively...they want action, not talking. So lets combine the two, gets some good comunication and let us fix whatever it is that is wrong instead of grumbling and shooting. That goes for all things not just war.
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
How could possibly say not to voice your opinion on war and what our men are doing? You say to remember Vietnam and to think of what our men went through when they came home and they are living on the streets, but then why are you saying not to talk? I can undersand getting aggravated with people who keep saying they like war but then never fight for it, but honestly do you think people will EVER keep their mouths shut about this topic. Not only that you can not and should not tell people what they want to say. You can tell people what not to say but you might want to expect to get all the comments you have gotten back. You might have started something you didn't want to start. GOOD JOB!!
You can't be serious!! Not only is it our constitutional right, its our obligation as US citizens to talk about the wars and conflicts that our president and/or congress gets us into. If we never talked of the wars we never would get anywhere. We would keep doing the same thing attacking nations and never finding a better way. Do you think Congress would have passed the War Powers act in 1973 if it hadn't been for the dissent about the Vietnam war? Its also important to talk in order for Intellectual conversation about diplomacy and the options we can use next time a situation arises in order to avoid repeating history. Honestly, it's one thing to be sick of listening to the broken records, but to tell everyone to simply shut their lips and say nothing, thats a worse crime than going to war.
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