kerravonsen | Prop-a-gander (Reply)

Oh, that guy on the news! The US guy in charge of the US in Iraq. When he described the recent attacks on US soldiers as attacks against "democracy and freedom" he made me sick. What a load of arrogant self-important hypocritical propagandaistic bull!
Hey, wake up here, Mister!
(a) The USA does not equal "democracy and freedom". Hey, there's a rest-of-the-world that's got some good chunks of democracy and freedom (and there's even bits that have monarchies and freedom too...)
(b) You just invaded their country, buddy. Sure, it was a country led by an evil nutcase, but it was still their country. From their point of view, they're defending their country against invaders. Ah, yes, the old conundrum: Q: "What's the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist?" A: the side you're on.
Though, really, I'd say the difference was in the choice of targets: military versus civilian.
The sooner the USA get out of Iraq the better.

(sigh)

There are some who are trying to portray this conflict as a religious one: the Evil Muslims against the Good Christians, or, indeed, the Good Muslims against the Evil Infidels.
Crap.
That's just propaganda again. Trying to stir people up, trying to get them to kill each other.
There have been many people in this century and the last who've blamed all the ills of the world on religion. "If only everyone was an atheist like me, we'd have world peace!" (Arthur C. Clarke went so far as to write his own utopian novel along these lines, "The Songs of Distant Earth", where his space colony was spared the "disease" of religion by the method of extremely heavy censorship of the data in the colony ship's data-banks...)
It isn't religion that causes wars, it's politics. Politics driven, as often as not, by fear and greed. The religion in religious wars was just the propaganda-engine.

(sigh)

I was going to go on a nice logical reasoned ramble about this, but... the whole thing is just too dispiriting.

In the name of god
In the name of god
The fight for gold, these were the changes
Tell me, is it right, in the name of god
these kind of changes?
...
There's no god who ever tried
to change the world in this way
For the ones who abuse his name,
there'll be no chance to escape
on Judgement Day
-- "Silent Warrior" Cross of Changes, Enigma