Now that's just cheeky...

[sugarpop]

UG, I think some people just get very tired of trying to reason with you, or I do anyway. Sometimes I feel like a broken record, repeating myself over and over and over. THAT's why I sometimes give up and stop answering you, not because I don't have an answer, but because I feel like you don't listen to me.

You have ONE point of view, and you are not willing to bend, ever. In the real world, there are many different ways to accomplish something, and using force is not always the best way, especially when the people in question have done nothing to you.

The world is not black and white. It is not "us" against "them." It is not all "right" and "wrong." You have to be able to read between the lines and hear the pauses between the words, and within the words. Everyone of us has the ability to do good, or to do bad. You have that within you UG, and so do I. So does everyone on this board. It is the choices we make that matter.

We are dealing with completely different cultures. It is neither right nor fair to judge those people by our own cultural standards. We do not have the right to go around the world and impose OUR WILL simply because we can. Stomping out cultural identity is wrong. Working with people within other cultures so they change their own cultures in the way they, as a people, see fit is what we should focus on.

As far as the Taliban not being stronger, do you watch the news? They have now invaded Pakistan, and are threatening the security of that country. They need to be stopped. But now we are in a much more difficult situation. Every time we fire missles into Pakistan, we end up killing civilians, and while the Pakistani people are beginning to realize what a threat the Taliban is to their own way of life, they do not like it when we kill innocent Pakistanis, and so we need to proceed carefully. Pakistan is our ally, and the Pakastani people are not our enemies. If we had fought the war in Afghanistan the right way, and not split our focus to invade a country that wasn't a threat, we would not have this problem now. But we do, and focusing on the past is probably not helpful, except to look at it and learn from it and not repeat past mistakes.

As far the detainees, not all of them were guilty of something. Some were completely innocent, yet we jailed them anyway, for years, with no charges and no trial. We tortured people. We acted in very barbaric and inhumane ways. We are supposed to be a becon of light for the rest of the world. We don't have that image anymore. So now we need to do the right thing, and act in such a way that shows the world we can admit our mistakes and make them right. That isn't being weak, that is the sign of a true leader, and of true power. The people down there who DID commit crimes, they need to be tried and sentenced and imprisoned, and we are fully capable of keeping them here, in this country, in prison.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I write about principles, sugarpop. One should be a rock about principles, and flexible about policies. Jefferson said that. And I think he got it right.

I don't listen to fatuity, and I know fatuity very well. Nonfatuous people find a serious audience in me. The fatuous get the condescending edge of my tongue, and shouldn't kick at receiving their just deserts, now should they?

If such are actually trying to "reason with me," they are failing. If you're going to talk values, you'd better have some worth mentioning.