[AccessD] RE:Tag Line of William Hindman

Lately, I my mailbox has been deluged with pro-war/anti-war propaganda
(including people's sigs).

Whether you're for the war or against it, just remember, there's a little
bit of truth in anyone's propaganda - that's why so many people will believe
it.

I have served four years in front line combat units. (101st Airborne Div and
2nd Armored Div(FWD.) I defended everyone's right to disagree with me and
their govt. I don't like to see people saying support the govt. or leave -
that's not democracy. I don't like to see anti-war protests get violent or
break the law, that's not being a pacifist.

My younger brother is still serving in the armed forces. In fact, he had
just returned from Afghanistan last week. Yes our soldiers are still
fighting in Afghanistan too! Or did everyone forget about that because its
not on the 5:00 news every night? He became ill during his last week there
and is still ill. The best we can figure is that when the Soviets occupied
Afghanistan in the 80s they doused the entire region with chemicals to kill
the vegetation so the local partisans could not hide there. Where he was
based there still wasn't any sign of vegetation. Previous to the 80s it was
a wooded area. I suppose the chemical residue coul dmake a person sick.

I have seen the effects of war and I don't believe war will ever bring
lasting peace. Yet I also see that we have allowed a horrible situation to
develop in Iraq. We didn't get involved in WWII because of the concentration
camps - we didn't even know about them. We do know about Iraq's govt. abuses
to humanity.


On the face of it: France Germany and Russia take the moral high ground.

Behind the scenes: France and Russian both have huge trade contracts with
Iraq - hence they're against it not for moral reasons but for monetary
reasons - much the same reason the US govt. is for it. They both had as much
or more to do as the U.S. did with the rise of Saddam Hussien in the first
place. They however allow their monetary reasons outweigh their morality.
The govt. of Germany seems to hold the moral high ground in this case. Some
in the USA think we did a good job over the last 50 years turning the most
aggressive people in the world into pacifists. However, they are still
recovering from absorbing communist Germany into their economy. And they too
have large business dealin gin Iraq. Basically they can't AFFORD to support
this war, monetarily or politically. These countries all supported the
economic blockade of Iraq which, of course never hurts the dictator or the
(contracts he provides) but really decimates the common and poor people of
the land. If they were such moral govts. they would have never allowed these
blockades to go on this long. France and Germany were both delivered from a
ruthless dictarship with outside help. I would hope the people of those
countries aren't as calous to Iraq's needing freedom as their govt. is.

On the face of it: US and UK want to remove a dictator who has no regard for
life and can threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction by
supplying terrorists with them, much in the same way that he supports human
bombs in Israel with cash rewards. This I support.

Behind the scenes: There are many aspects of why our elected govt. supports
this war besides the publicly spoken reasons. A few: The U.S. supported
Sadam Hussien's political party in order to replace the Soviet Union's
puppet dictator there. They also supported Saddam directly when he was at
war with Iran. (Among other mistakes.) They are trying to clean up their
mess. Just like they did in Panama and so many other places. Yet they
continue to get into this type of "mess" in other countries by supporting
the "worse of two evils". The U.S. needs Iraq for a political presence in
the mid-east besides the locally hated Israel and the insignificant state of
Jordan. Do we want their oil, sure. Do we need it, I don't think so. I wish
our govt. leaders stop choosing the worse of two evils

Given all that, I absolutely, without a doubt support our soldiers. They
have a duty to respond to the publicly elected official's orders. Nothing
worse can happen to a country than to have the military disregard the
elected officials. This would put the military in control of that country
and no matter what the public facade, the country would then be a "military
state". The proper way to prevent our country from going to war is not by
disregarding our soldier's duty as honorable but by voting and being
involved before things happens.