TRYING TO HELP

By Dennis Miller

All the rhetoric on whether or not we should go to war against Iraq has got my insane little brain spinning like a roulette wheel. I enjoy reading opinions from both sides, but I have detected a hint of confusion from some of you.

As I was reading the paper recently, I was reminded of the best advice someone ever gave me. He told me about the KISS method ("Keep it Simple, Stupid"). So, with this as a theme, I'd like to apply this theory for those who don't quite get it. My hope is that we can simplify things a bit and recognize a few important facts.

Here are 10 things to consider when voicing an opinion on this important issue:

1) President Bush and Saddam Hussein.....Hussein is the bad guy.  

EH:  Guess this depends on your definition of "Bad Guy," and such black and white statements demonstrate only ignorance. NO ONE argues that Saddam is a bad guy. However, GW Bush is not the legitimate president of this country, having stold the election through a partisan vote of the supreme court. Al Gore recieved more votes in Florida, and the Nation. Bush has sacked the constitution and the associated freedoms that  hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans have died for with the unnecessary and unconstitutional Patriot Act. He has flagrantly trashed important environmental protections. He has sent people to military prison without trial, attorney, or charges. He has turned the US into a Fascist government. He has assassinated people who threaten him.  The difference between him and Hussein is only in degrees. 



2) If you have faith in the United Nations to do the right thing, keep this in mind. They have Libya heading the Committee on Human Rights and Iraq heading the Global Disarmament Committee. Do your own math here.  

EH:  Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.  You think ignoring the opinions of the countries we are threatened by will protect us? Ignorance may be bliss, but it is not safety. It is good they are on the committees, and get their voice heard.  BTW, neither country "heads" those committees.



3) If you use Google Search and type in "French Military Victories," your reply will be "Did you mean French Military Defeats?"  

EH: Yah, and if you type in  "Number of Sovereign Countries bombed by the US since WW2" you will get "19", and then if you type in "number of Democratic Governments created by those actions, you will get "1" (South Korea with the concurrent creation of the isolated and dangerous North).



4) If your only antiwar slogan is "No war for oil," sue your school district for allowing you to slip through the cracks and robbing you of the education you deserve.  

EH:  Huh?  Whatever he's smoking, I want some...



5) Saddam and Bin Laden will not seek United Nations approval before they try to kill us.  

EH:  This again shows great ignorance.  Saddam is a dictator, not a religious fanatic. All of his heinous actions to date have been exclusively toward the goal of preserving his power.  Attacking the US has no logic whatsoever towards this goal. Ironically, if we continue to threaten him, as a last gesture, he may very well give Bin Laden some Bio or Chemical Agents, but it is likely that would only happen just before we take him out.  The US mainland has been successfully attacked exactly one time. Most of the countries in this world have been attacked hundreds of times.  And yet with only one spectacular Terrorist success, the people of the US are ready to sacrifice the very freedoms that millions of Americans died to secure and protect.  We are ready to kill thousands if not hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan, effectively making us no better than them (Bin Laden). All to create a false sense of security, because the real enemy is hatred, ignorance, poverty, and religious fundamentalism, not Bin Laden.  The enemy is the things that create suicide bombers, not the bombers themselves.  And bombs will never kill that enemy.


6) Despite what some seem to believe, Martin Sheen is NOT the President. He plays one on TV  

EH:  Niether is GW (see #1)   Considering what we're stuck with, at least we can dream about a REAL president.



7) Even if you are antiwar, you are still an "Infidel" and Bin Laden wants you dead, too.  

EH:  This is very simplistic, and unlikely true. Based on the tenets of Islam, it is more likely he hates our imperialistic government, and the aspects of our society he deems as destructive to the muslim way of life.  He is a zealot, but an educated one.  I do not in any way condone him or his views, but you must try to understand your enemy and not make foolish assumptions.  He attacked the World Trade Center, not a football game. He attacked an icon of American business and finance, and the Pentagon, not a shopping mall.  Clearly not an attack "against" the American People, but against the American government and the big businesses that control it.  And the likelyhood of Bin Laden achieving another spectacular success is slim.  The only real vulnerability the US has from such grandiose attacks are US Ports, and strangely, while we are ready to spend hundreds of Billions to remove a petty dictator, we have done virtually nothing to safeguard our ports, the only practical entrance point for Nukes, Dirty Bombs, anything short of Bio weapons.  And as for Bio weapons, when someone asked me how the Bush administration is so sure the Iraqis have Biological materials, I answered simply, "they looked at the receipt"  And if you think Bin Laden and Saddam are working together, than you know more than the CIA and FBI does.



8) If you believe in a "vast right-wing conspiracy," but not in the danger that Hussein poses, quit hanging out with the Dell computer dude.  

EH:  It has long since ceased to be a "conspiracy", and moved into the realm of painfully obvious. More than one major Media company has been caught flagrantly scrubbing damning articles about the Bushistas,  virtually none of the CEO's of the numerous companies caught cooking the books have been charged, the Taliban scuttled pipeline is now under way, the proof (not to be confused with suspicions) goes on and on, and is readily available to anyone who looks carefully with an open mind. I would hesitate to call that "Conspiracy" I recommend www.thewaronfreedom.com as a radicle starting point.  www.thruthout.org is also a very good general info source of articles taken from many mainstream and not so mainstream news sources, as well has opinions by some of Americs best minds. feel free to email me for more good web sites. And don't just believe, question everything, including NBC, excuse me, GE.



9) We are not trying to liberate them.  

EH:  This Ironically, is the most ignorant statement of all, because this is the ONLY justification for attacking Iraq, but one not supported by the results of the 19 previously mentioned campaigns.  All the experts regarding Iraq, insist that the prospects of creating a successful democratic government in a country with numerous factions who all hate each other is almost nill.  The suggestion that Germany and Japan are examples of democracy building that worked,  are ignorant of the facts. Both Germany and Japan were culturally united populaces, with long traditions as countries, and were economically and socially over due to leave the systems they were trapped in.  Such is not the case with Iraq or Afghanistan. Socialism is probably the only way they can remain free of a continuos civil war.  And needless to say, without relatively world-wide support through the United nations for an attack, it will never be viewed as legitimate or anything but imperialism by everyone. We had the chance to "free" the Iraqis in 91', had that been the goal, they would have done so.



10) Whether you are for military action, or against it, our young men and women overseas are fighting for us to defend our right to speak out. We all need to support them without reservation.  

EH:  And I believe that every American today does support the commitment and willingness to sacrifice they offer to our defense.  It is our present government that is treasonous for sending them into harms way without proper justification or international support, and they will hold the responsibility for their deaths, as shall we, the people, if we believe their documented lies, misrepresentations, and spin, and do nothing to avert it.

 

 

Read my messges on this board   Read my messges anywhere

 

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Just a note, I went to google and typed in "French military victories," and didn't get the response stated above. I used the term both with quotes around it (435 links) and without quotations (58,300 links). Check it out:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22french+military...