Mr. aHarris:
I’m not saying that being the victim of collateral damage is OK. I’m saying that it happens in warfare. I’m also saying that the US takes far greater precautions to prevent it than, say, screaming lunatics who hide behind women and children in hospitals, schools, markets and mosques; kidnap and behead infidels, and teach their pre-teen children to strap on dynamite belts and blow themselves up.
As I stated earlier, 26,000 weren’t the victims of collateral damage. They were the victims of deliberate, planned homicidal actions by a group of insane animals bent on the destruction of people like, well, you. You can’t seriously blame the victims of Muslim car bombs and Sunni death squads on the coalition forces.
Since you obviously don’t understand US law, the First Amendment is not, in fact, absolute. There are recognized limits on the protections afforded by the law. What I said, since you seem unable to grasp the concept, is that aiding the enemy in time of war is treason. The time for debate on whether or not to engage a homicidal force took place some time ago. The duly elected representatives of the people decided to back the President in his efforts to protect not only the US but the rest of the world from a movement which wishes to enslave the world into a 7th century theocracy. Despite the flip-flops from many of those representative elected officials since then, the vote was solidly on the side of the President to enter into armed conflict with the terrorists. THAT was the time to discuss whether or not to do this, not four years into the war. To do so now weakens the country’s resolve and aids the enemy in its battle with the civilized world. Aiding the enemy in time of war is treason.
The pull-out of the US from Southeast Asia was DIRECTLY responsible for the takeover of the Pol Pot regime following the collapse of the ruling military junta in April 1975. Pol Pot then instituted the “agrarian reforms” which resulted in the loss of 20% of the country’s population. Had the US been successful in South Vietnam, Pol Pot wouldn’t have been able to launch his genocide because he would have lost the support of his primary backers, the North Vietnamese. It wasn’t a matter of “scaring” him; it was a matter of cutting off his primary source of supply. The assertion that the US withdrawal led to the genocide isn’t ridiculous; it’s documented fact. From the United Human Rights Council report: “By 1975, the U.S. had withdrawn its troops from Vietnam. Cambodia's government, plagued by corruption and incompetence,
also lost its American military support. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, consisting of teenage peasant guerrillas, marched into Phnom Penh and on April 17 effectively seized control of Cambodia.” For the record, I was a helicopter pilot stationed in Thailand during the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, and my unit participated in both evacuations. Your view of history is misinformed.
Mr. Marbury:
It is my understanding that over a dozen known terrorists have been apprehended crossing illegally from Canada into the US.
This US GAO report documents how easy it is to enter the US from either Mexico or Canada:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06976t.pdf
Heck, even CBS (the Clinton Broadcasting System) says Canada is a terrorist haven:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in706993.shtml
It’s impossible to tell how many have come in since apparently you folks have removed most of your law enforcement from the ports of entry. From my personal experience, your immigration folks seem far more concerned with ensuring that we greedy Americans don’t come up to take work from the poor defenseless Canadians than you are with apprehending terrorists. (Personal data point on that one.) But perhaps you're right; maybe we should wait for the radioactive dust cloud to settle over what used to be Chicago before we jump to any conclusions about whether or not terrorists are infiltrating our country from the socialist haven up north. I'm sure that Osama hasn't figured out yet that there is more than one border with the US.