Former gang member turned Marine and recipient of the Navy Cross expresses his thoughts after after returning from Iraq:
Liberals often like to say that “violence is senseless.”
That’s wrong.
Violence isn’t senseless. Senseless violence is senseless. And I should know. Before being awarded the Navy Cross and having the privilege of becoming a Marine, I was a gang member. Sometimes it takes having used violence for both evil as well as good to know that there’s a profound moral difference between the two.
Read the whole thing, but especially note this:
But if there was one lesson I learned from my past it is that there is a profound moral difference between using violence to destroy lives and using violence to save lives. Terrorists do the former; soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines do the latter.
Indeed they do. At least those on our side do.
ET – I’ve just discovered that this blogging thing is adictive.
Mate, I’m just going by what it says in the
Oxford dictionary, democracy – “control of a group by the majority of its members”
This says nothing about it’s members being elected. I understand what you’re trying to say. But this is the definition in the dictionary. Democracatic principals don’t just exist in the context of a whole society.
You say the US policies are not just geared towards big corps but medium as well. You’re clutching at straws.
You say that it is only big corps that can manage media. That isn’t a point against their being bias.
The media is not strongly hostile to the gov. As I said, criticism is kept within strict bounds always defending the status quo. Now for those of us who know (and we won’t get back to this) it is obvious that we do not want democracy in Iraq. However, this is never mentioned on TV, because it is outside the excepted bounds. The ,media is allowed to criticise the gov to a point but doesn’t overstep the mark, this also makes people believe that it is objective.
Adverts. All newspapers are not sold to us. They are sold to the advertisers and then we get the end product. (They make the vast majority of profit from ads.) It is in comps interest to protect the status quo of present gov policy which is good for business interest. Also the real truth is normally controversial. This can scare people off.
Not all academics speak smug irrelevance, don’t be so hard on yourself. (sorry, I couldn’t resist that)
Almost all politicians lie to achieve their goals and policies. Surely you can’t disagree with that (You know I meant nuclear weaps by WMDs) The media is then supposed to act as a check. So since it’s the politicians comments and sources in the news all the time. It is their lies which set the agenda. Just by commenting on something, they get you talking about what they want you to talk about. (Iran is evil etc.)
There is no conspiracy in this. It’s just an unhappy sideeffect and one which stops us finding the truth.
BBC – A journalist, Andrew Gilligan and the head of the BBC, greg Dyke were sacked because they tried to bring out evidence that the 45 minute claim for saddam firing WMDs was false. This claim is ovbiously false to everyone now. Officially they were sacked because they only used one source. (If it were an official gov source, you can be sure they would not have even been questioned)
I apologise for my exageration about fox news, apperently there are a few people in Poland who take it seriously. As far as I’m aware there are no statistics on how many people laugh at fox news. I’m trying to get across the point that to the vast majority here, it is absurd. Come and find out for yourself.
Islamic fundamentalism. You over estimate it te importance of it.
Since the ‘war on terror’ began, terrorism has increased massively around the world. This was also forseen in official CIA documents. Self evidently, getting rid of terrorism is not very high on the list of aims of the US’s ‘war on terror.’ What the war on terror is about is building up the image of an enemy so that the US gove can convince it’s people to support any war it decides to start.
First, there is actually no evidence that Iran is supplying weapons. There is also no evidence that they are trying to build WMD. Take a look at the IAEA reports. This is all propaganda to make you hate them.
If Iran are gving Iraqis weapons. They are not forcing them to use them. Iraqis are still fighting for their own independence from foreign (US) rule.
It suits the US for tribalism. The US wants a divided Iraq. Easier to govern. Once again, most Iraqis believe that it is the US that is stirring civil war there for it’s own purposes.
ET. Truth is the first casualty of war. Please do not believe anything your government tells you about the war. They lied getting us there and EVERYTHING they say now has nothing to do with the truth but instead how to manipulate the public. This is obvious. When talking to the public, why not use every word to your advantage. What does truth matter.
This is a huge subject to talk so briefly about.
ps apollyn – I know lots of people you would describe as leftist. However, I don’t think I’ve ever met a communist.
look, johnn miller, and your ‘this is the last post’ – terms don’t mean what you say they mean; they mean what they are used for.
When you inform us that the UN is a democratic institution, this can’t refer simply to the fact that the members vote. That’s akin to saying that a totalitarian cabal is a democracy because the appointed members of the cabal, all cousins or acolytes of the dictator, ‘vote’ (to please the dictator as well). That group in which they ‘vote’ is NOT a democracy. So, don’t play semantic games. The UN is NOT a democracy. Neither is the Hell’s Angels.
Because YOU say that I’m clutching at straws doesn’t mean that I am. You are not the arbiter of truth; that’s only your opinion. In fact, all you do in your posts is provide us with your ungrounded opinions, and insist that they are both factual and the truth. They are neither; they remain your personal opinions, ungrounded and most certainly invalid and not ‘the truth’.
Check out the economic stats of the US, and see the importance of small to medium size business to its economy.
Furthermore – BIG business and BIG corporations are exactly right for a large population industrial economy. So, your antipathy to big business is economic ignorance.
Only big business can manage media. Small, medium and big corporations – as well as individuals like you, can be biased. So?
You claim that ‘for those of us who know, it is obvious that we don’t want democracy in Iraq’. Please clarify ‘those of us who know’. Are you a senior member of govt? How do you have the knowledge to make this claim? Or is it, again, one of your opinions. The fact that you don’t know what democracy means, what Islamic fascism means, what political tribalism means, suggests to me that you can’t know the ‘mind of the govt’.
Your outline of media advertising and govt is incomprehensible. You still haven’t explained how the govt controls media content.
No, the real truth is not normally controversial or frightening.
No, WMD don’t just mean nuclear.
Your comment about the ‘few people in Poland’ is as ungrounded as your previous comment about ‘all people’ against Fox. You continue to present your opinions – as universal truths – when in reality, they are your ungrounded, and frankly quite ignorant opinions.
i most certainly don’t overestimate Islamic fundamentalism. Since you don’t know what Islamic fascism means, or its causes, or its history, then, this remains, yet another of your ungrounded personal opinions.
Since the war on terrorism began, the actions in the West have been reduced, and Islamic fascism has been pushed back into the ME – where the Muslim community MUST confront political tribalism. It can’t hide it any longer – and that’s why you are seeing the escalation in the ME – they have to confront political tribalism.
Your opinions about the US are rubbish. There is plenty of evidence that Iran is giving the Iraqis weapons, including the captured weapons which are shown to have come from Iranian stocks. The fomenting of tribal warfare is most certainly an Iranian agenda. Kindly consider the tribal infrastructure of Iraq and Iran, and the history of antipathy between the tribes – and Iran’s imperialist aims in the ME.
No, the US doesn’t want a divided Iraq. Again, an ungrounded opinion. If they had wanted one, they wouldn’t have insisted on the Iraqi setting up an inclusive constitution, rule of law and democratic govt. Do you really expect people to simply take your opinions as facts???
My knowledge doesn’t come from any govt; my knowledge comes from research into the economic and historical background of the area, from research into political structures, demographic and economic and political correlations, research into Islam, into fascism – and – articles written by various analysts on the situation.
Quite frankly, johnny miller of the Last Posts – your opinions are totally lacking in evidence, facts, knowledge – and remain, astonishingly ignorant.
Every opinion you have, I read about and see in the papers and on TV everyday, esp on Fox. I’m sure you’ve heard all mine before as well.
This could go on forever.
I call you ignorant. You call me ignorant. I say you are lacking in evidence. You, to me.
Sincerely, however, good luck. I wish you well.
ET, it’s excellent posts like that which make your views on Israel so confusing.