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FarBeyondDriven said:
Wow, I could go on for hours about this.  A lot of people could I'm sure.  There's so many ways to look at it, and there's really more than just one answer I think.  I mean, when 9/11 happened, the United States had to do something.  I mean, the U.S. couldn't just stand there and do nothing, know what I mean?  With that being said, we had NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER going into Iraq.  If we were going to go anywhere, which in a way, we kind of had to, it was Afghanistan.  Tell the Afhany people, if you're innocent and not an insurgent/terrorist, leave the country now.  Which we wouldn't know how easy it would be for them to do that safely, they could've been killed trying to leave by the die hard insurgent motherfuckers, who knows?  It's more complicated than just one right answer.  Give them a deadline and if they're not gone by then, too bad.  When the time is up, blow the fucking country to bits with airstrikes.  Maybe that works, maybe it doesn't.  After you've pretty much crippled the country, go in there and find Bin Laden, which to me, was just a figurehead, kind of the face of the whole thing.  Not really even sure how involved he was in the day to day operations of the whole terror thing.  That whole terrorist thing is WAAAAAYYYYY bigger than Bin Laden to be honest.  I mean, so many of them hate us.  Their ideologies differ so much from ours, we'll probably never be at peace with them to be honest.  There's no one right answer to the whole "War on Terror."  I do think a lot of life has just been wasted on both sides.  Our government, as you all know, is famous for trying to fuckin brainwash citizens.  I do feel like the U.S. had to do something at least after 9/11.  I mean, be honest, we couldn't have just sat there and done absolutely nothing about the whole thing, being one of the most developed and powerful countries in the world.  The thing is though, this war can't be fought like traditional wars, out on the battlefield n shit like that.  They run and hide behind walls and all that hit n run shit.  Which in my opinion is cowardly yes.  I also think it would've been cowardly to just not do a damn thing after 9/11 too.  I do respect our soldiers for going over there, yes, but a lot of them didn't expect to go to war either when they enlisted before 9/11.  I mean, let's be honest, wars don't really happen THAT frequently.  Most military men and women won't ever even see war, but when it happens, you gotta go, ya feel me?  A lot of these kids just signed up trying to do a couple years and then get out and go to school, not really expecting to go to war.  What kills me is the just absolute waste of life on both sides and the brainwashing that takes place on both sides.  I mean basically, the actual people fighting for both sides are pawns.  It really is a shame.  Especially as far as the Iraq thing.  We had NO FUCKING BUSINESS going into Iraq.  I'm not saying Saddam Hussein was a great man, because he was a piece of shit.  But we had no business, and still have no business fighting in two countries at once time.  A lot of young people and older people died, for what'll probably amount to be basically nothing in the grand scheme of things.  And that, no matter which way you look at it IS a shame, an utterly terrible thing.  I mean really, we had no business going into Iraq under some fucking "War on Terror, Protect our Freedoms" bullshit premise.  Maybe in Afghanistan (though I think it could've been handled a couple of different ways a lot better than it was) yes, but fuck no when it comes to Iraq.  Like I said, I could go on for hours about this, and there are many different ways to look at it, and there's no one right answer, but whenever life is wasted, young and old, it really is a shame.  But yes, I do have a lot of respect for military men and women because these people do give up a lot of things (time with family and friends, their health, their lives altogether, their sanity sometimes, watching their friends die in front of them).  I mean these people do go through a lot of things that most of us never will, and for that, I do respect them.  They see some crazy shit.  I partied with a guy one night who had just come back from Iraq and he was showing me some pictures on his laptop of some shit that happened in Iraq and let's just say it wasn't the stuff they show on the nightly news.  He said kids would come up to them with bombs in boxes or bombs strapped to their bodies I believe and blow them up.  Sometimes however, kids would walk up to them just asking for water and the soldiers would tell them to walk away, but they couldn't understand English and would keep walking to them and after a while the soldiers had to shoot kids to save their own lives.  I mean like 5 and 6 year old kids.  That dude was so mentally fucked it was ridiculous.  Like he needed a therapist or something.  I think that whole Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is legitamite.  I mean I didn't really believe in it until I met this guy, but after meeting him, it changed my mind very quickly.  These people go through a lot and see some crazy shit, and really do sacrifice some things in my opinion, just expected to pull a couple years on a base then go to school, but when war happens while they just happen to be enlisted, they have to go.  However, they knew that when they signed up too.  There's two sides to the coin, know what I mean?  There's so many ways to look at this whole thing, but I do feel like soldiers and enlisted men and women do deserve respect.  Our government on the other hand, not so much.  But at the same time, the U.S. had to do something after 9/11 too.  We couldn't just sit back and take it.  Any decision Bush would've made after 9/11 would've been wrong in some people's eyes, and right in other people's eyes, know what I mean.  But he WAS WRONG going into Iraq and his reasons for going into Iraq are questionable I think, but we'll save that convo for another time.  There was a lot of pressure on his shoulders at that point in time, from the whole world basically, not just the U.S.  Definitely one of those things that has no one right answer and a lot of wrong answers too imo.  How would any of you have handled it if it was your decision?  I really don't know how I would've.  I said the airstrike thing up there, but I'm not sure about that like 100% either, that's just a quick off the cuff reaction too.  I mean really thinkin about it, how would ya'll have handled the whole thing?

Oh as far as the actual question goes lol, a lot of u.s. citizens are fuckin brainwashed idiots too imo. 

so deadhearts----you're saying our military men/women deserve no thanks whatsoever and no respect whatsoever or what?

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