An observation of local politics: This is the July fourth weekend and usually you would see a lot of American flags. However the climate has changed …
After 9/11, the neighborhood spouted a bunch of American flags as a show of patriotism. Even through the war in Afghanistan, they stayed up. However with war in Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and what is going on in Guantanamo Bay has apparently shown that it was time to take down the flags. Just walking through the neighborhood today, I found several "no war" and "peace" signs, however only two American flags (although one of them had corporate logos instead of stars as a political statement). I seems that no matter what the polls say, it does not seem like people are proud of their country to show their flag even on the holiday to celebrate the country’s independence … at least in my neighborhood.
In Afghanistan, we knew the goals: strike back at the people who attacked us and take out an oppressive government. After the 9/11 there was a showing of support for the US. Many countries supported and helped out in the operation. In particular, Pakistan was a neighboring country that continues to provide the backing for the war on terrorism. Even us tree-hugging hippies could not disagree too much with invading Afghanistan; we did not like it, but it had to be done. More importantly is to point out that before we invaded there were several tribal leaders within that had an armed resistance against the Taleban. After the war, we were able to rebuild the country with the support of an international effort, including the various Afghan tribal leaders.
Some us knew that war in Iraq was wrong before it started. We saw through the lies. When Bush was quoted, "this is the guy who tried to kill my dad," it told us that it was a personal vendetta. Sure enough, the UN weapons inspections did not come up with anything because it was not there. Inspections did reveal 30 missiles that were not weapons of mass destruction, although they still were not supposed to have (Iraq said it was a filling error) and the Iraq government immediately destroyed them once discovered. While weapon inspections we not answer, it was working. Some people saw that the war Iraq was a mistake when the US and Britain could not convince the UN Security Counsel that we need to take action; if so many countries objected then maybe we were not justified. None of the neighboring countries pledged support, nor were there any armed resistance already in Iraq to help fight the battle or rebuild the country afterwards. Saddam effectively ran the country so any resistance would be stamped out before they started ("preemptive strike" perhaps).
The war began. Instead of missiles being destroyed, they were being fired. News came out that Bush's administration lied about the whole plutonium from Niger was found to be unconfirmed and untrue. People started to realize that if the US and Britain forces did not find weapons of mass destruction after invading, overthrowing and occupying the country, maybe there was not any there; if the intelligence was so lock solid enough to invade, then they would have walked right in and uncovered them instantly. Still a lot of people were fooled by the propaganda that Iraq had ties with al-Qaeda. However, when we found Saddam in the spider hole we found paperwork that told the Iraqi resistance to not trust foreign combatants as they were the enemy just as the US and Britain. More recently, congressional commission probe investigating the 9/11 attacks found that there was "no creditable evidence" to show ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, the Bush administration held its ground, but not the American public. The only thing that the Americans could hold on to justify the war on Iraq was that Saddam was an evil dictator. Nobody disagreed with that. Sure, at first we freed the Iraqi civilians from their oppressive government. While they were happy that Saddam was gone, Iraqi civilians still did not want us there. Terrorist attacks in Iraq started happening everyday killing US And British troops, international contractors brought in to rebuild the country and even Iraq civilians who got in the way. Terrorist attacks just never happened in Iraq while in Saddam's control. Furthermore, when the evils of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal showed that we were committing war crimes, violating human rights and torturing the prisoners, it became apparent that we were just as bad as him.
So why are we there? US had to sacrifice international relations to do so which puts us in worst standing in the world. In fact we just showed to the world that extreme groups were right when they said that we were the monsters that must be opposed. While we might have defeated al-Qaeda to a degree (but does anybody remember that Bin Laden is still at large?), these actions will only make more groups rise against us.
So if you are planning to celebrate the birth of the United States of America, celebrate your freedom of speak and do NOT put up your flag.
After 9/11, the neighborhood spouted a bunch of American flags as a show of patriotism. Even through the war in Afghanistan, they stayed up. However with war in Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and what is going on in Guantanamo Bay has apparently shown that it was time to take down the flags. Just walking through the neighborhood today, I found several "no war" and "peace" signs, however only two American flags (although one of them had corporate logos instead of stars as a political statement). I seems that no matter what the polls say, it does not seem like people are proud of their country to show their flag even on the holiday to celebrate the country’s independence … at least in my neighborhood.
In Afghanistan, we knew the goals: strike back at the people who attacked us and take out an oppressive government. After the 9/11 there was a showing of support for the US. Many countries supported and helped out in the operation. In particular, Pakistan was a neighboring country that continues to provide the backing for the war on terrorism. Even us tree-hugging hippies could not disagree too much with invading Afghanistan; we did not like it, but it had to be done. More importantly is to point out that before we invaded there were several tribal leaders within that had an armed resistance against the Taleban. After the war, we were able to rebuild the country with the support of an international effort, including the various Afghan tribal leaders.
Some us knew that war in Iraq was wrong before it started. We saw through the lies. When Bush was quoted, "this is the guy who tried to kill my dad," it told us that it was a personal vendetta. Sure enough, the UN weapons inspections did not come up with anything because it was not there. Inspections did reveal 30 missiles that were not weapons of mass destruction, although they still were not supposed to have (Iraq said it was a filling error) and the Iraq government immediately destroyed them once discovered. While weapon inspections we not answer, it was working. Some people saw that the war Iraq was a mistake when the US and Britain could not convince the UN Security Counsel that we need to take action; if so many countries objected then maybe we were not justified. None of the neighboring countries pledged support, nor were there any armed resistance already in Iraq to help fight the battle or rebuild the country afterwards. Saddam effectively ran the country so any resistance would be stamped out before they started ("preemptive strike" perhaps).
The war began. Instead of missiles being destroyed, they were being fired. News came out that Bush's administration lied about the whole plutonium from Niger was found to be unconfirmed and untrue. People started to realize that if the US and Britain forces did not find weapons of mass destruction after invading, overthrowing and occupying the country, maybe there was not any there; if the intelligence was so lock solid enough to invade, then they would have walked right in and uncovered them instantly. Still a lot of people were fooled by the propaganda that Iraq had ties with al-Qaeda. However, when we found Saddam in the spider hole we found paperwork that told the Iraqi resistance to not trust foreign combatants as they were the enemy just as the US and Britain. More recently, congressional commission probe investigating the 9/11 attacks found that there was "no creditable evidence" to show ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, the Bush administration held its ground, but not the American public. The only thing that the Americans could hold on to justify the war on Iraq was that Saddam was an evil dictator. Nobody disagreed with that. Sure, at first we freed the Iraqi civilians from their oppressive government. While they were happy that Saddam was gone, Iraqi civilians still did not want us there. Terrorist attacks in Iraq started happening everyday killing US And British troops, international contractors brought in to rebuild the country and even Iraq civilians who got in the way. Terrorist attacks just never happened in Iraq while in Saddam's control. Furthermore, when the evils of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal showed that we were committing war crimes, violating human rights and torturing the prisoners, it became apparent that we were just as bad as him.
So why are we there? US had to sacrifice international relations to do so which puts us in worst standing in the world. In fact we just showed to the world that extreme groups were right when they said that we were the monsters that must be opposed. While we might have defeated al-Qaeda to a degree (but does anybody remember that Bin Laden is still at large?), these actions will only make more groups rise against us.
So if you are planning to celebrate the birth of the United States of America, celebrate your freedom of speak and do NOT put up your flag.