Read the commenting rules carefully because they will be enforced!
George Santayana: "Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
With African American History month fast approaching in schools, we should recall the stories of the past that are repeating now. Unfortunately we tend to simplify our history into trite sound bites that have no power to teach the next generation. The Pulse a blog for school administrators has a post about this, but it's an ignored subject in most schools, except for silly "I have a dream" essays and coloring contests.
http://www.districtadministratio...no&
postid=18151
Spree
War can not be reconstruction
War is destruction and no America has not won the war yet or what else American soldiers are still in Iraq?
If you are going to say they are there for make better life for Iraqi people , I have some evident that is indicative of the opposite that I can email it to you if you wish
Spree.
it is good to be patriotic about your country but America is for wrong reason in Iraq and should withdraw from Iraq , but yes this can not be done so quickly.
Spree
This war is not about winning or losing, it is about the live of thousands of innocent people (American solders and Iraqi people)
Bush is a war criminal and with wrong policy has caused the death of thousands of thousands people
Spree
I am Iranian and I am patriotic about my country also but the love that I have for country does not stop me to t stand up against my government policy
Right now, Bush policy is wrong and should not be support under any circumstances
In my opinion Bush and Ahmadinejad are one of the same thing
Both are some Nazi nuts and criminal liars that should be immediately wiped them out world’ map
Arghavan,
Perhaps it is the language barrier but obviously you are either not reading, or not understanding the posts....
The WAR was taking Saddam OUT of power....you deny we accomplished that without a problem? NO.
NOW we are "rebuilding", it is called "reconstruction"...read our history, after every war there is rebuilding and for some countries it takes DECADES.
Terminology is important and knowing the meaning of the words is even more so.
If you cannot understand the difference in the terminology, you should not be commenting.
Time to take the dog out and watching a show, so thanks for stopping by again :o)
Dear Spree
ofcourse I have read you article and I think completely has understand what you are trying to say but the problem is that I think it is you that should get a better understanding of words in the before you actually use them in your article.
There are some major problems in your article
First, the war has not finished yet
I think that the death of American soldiers and Iraqis is very well indicative of that
Secondly, the problem is that Saddam was posing no threat to America as Bush lied to American people. In fact he was nothing than an American puppet but yes he was a treat to his own people
It was for Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam regime not America .Another thing is that most Iraqis are against the present of American soldiers and why they are actually do not America present in Iraq if all America is doing for the benefit of them?
I mean, people are people, and yes, I as an Iranian would love an America ready to pay thousands of thousand of dollars for my country reconstruction, why Iraqi people should not love it then?
Spree, you should know that people‘s dissatisfaction of American invasion demonstrates the simple fact that American is not actually doing a great job in there.
Basically, invading a country can not be for be a good purpose
Thirdly, again It was for Iraqis people to reconstruct their country not for America, and as far American troops are there and deepening the sectarian conflict in Iraq, this goal can not be accomplish any way.
Spree
There is another thing that I have to mention here and that is if Bush did not invade Iraq , there would not need now to reconstruct and reconstitute that country as you mention in your article
Spree
I basically read only the fist part of your article and I am now reading the rest of it
Good history lesson... i.e. these things are complicated and hard, with ups and downs, with plans that have to be adjusted, and WILL and MORAL DETERMINATION that has to be maintained.
Unfortunately, Liberals do not know how to reason morally any more (BUSH=HITLER gibberish) and have lost even the ability to reason based on strict pragmatism. Their "leaders" are parasites, like Pelosi and Reid, as bad as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, because they all feed off of hatred, resentment, and ignorance.
What a mess.
Spree.
I am sorry to say that I can not accept what America is doing in Irqq is far beyond reconstruction and yes I understood what you said
you got it about three quarters right.
We won the war in the spring of 2003. Our government should have declared the war over sometime in May or June. At that point they could have announced their plans for the occupation and a part of that plan could have been reconstruction. Another part of the plan could have been amnesty for the existing military and most government officials. The occupation should also have included a draw down of our forces and a time table for the Iraqi troops and government to take over.
The problem we face now is the current administration doesnt want to leave Iraq. The plan all along was the permanent occupation of Iraq. The stated goal of the Plan for the New American Centrury was a group of permanant bases in the middle east in a country we control so that we could project power into the region.
GW Bush also enjoyes calling himself the war president, because during a war presidents get special powers and deference. You can't be against the president in a time of war without seeming to be a traitor. He parleyed that into a second term of office.
If our goal was really to free the Iraqi people, we could have done it with a lot less troops, ended the war in a month, brought the troops home by christmas.
Unfortunatly the neocons got what they wanted.. a perminant presence and now that is what we are now fighting for.
I am not going to pretend I have midreading abilities and can read our leaders minds to know what they are thinking.
The post was about terminology.
Example: If you are eating and orange, and walk around showing it to people and are calling it an apple.... YOU may believe it is an apple, but that doesn't make it so...it simply makes one look ignorant that they do not know the difference and will actually argue the point.
Dictionaries have meanings for words and communication works MUCH better when people use the proper context and the right words for things.
It is actually pretty simple.
I read this article with deep sadness. I don't think the 'Reconstruction' arguement is even remotely relevant. I served as an Army Chaplain before coming to the realization that for me it was sin. The Chaplain Corps failed to be a prophetic voice to stop this invasion. This war was naked aggression. 'Reconstuction?' - give me a break.
Here is an Army Chaplain IN Iraq that severely disagrees with you Scott:
http://
armychaplain.blogspot.com...nstruction.html
One of the things I've noticed about the coverage of the war in Iraq, back in the US, is the absolutely negative way in which everything connected to it is being portrayed. This includes the media, and members of both political parties. And it comes from people who lack a very basic knowledge of the region or its people. Read this article on CNN for an example. Now, I understand that not every American knows that Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization, but shouldn't the guy who will be heading up the House Intelligence Committee know this?? Seriously... and these politicians are the ones telling us we're "losing."
What bothers me is the way that members of both parties have, a) Turned the war political, and b) Begun to talk about winning or losing in ways that we cannot. Coming back to the States for a bit, and seeing the TV coverage blows me away. What's getting lost in the mix are the Iraqis.
Let me offer a different way of thinking about this: We won the war in Iraq. Yes, past tense: we won. You see, militarily, we invaded Iraq, defeated their Army, and captured their leadership. On this point, we had a crushing and overwhelming victory. No questions about it. We did what we said we were going to do: invaded the country and deposed Saddam (remember, right before the war started, we gave Saddam 48 hours to leave office), and we inforced the weapons inspections. That was the "war." We won that.
What is happening now is the reconstruction and reconstitution of Iraq. In other words: putting it back together. We helped the Iraqis democratically elect a government. Check. We have trained and Army and Police Force. Check. The problem is that the government and military of Iraq are not doing a good job. That is the point on which things are failing. We have to stop thinking about this phase as winning or losing a war.
Over the past two years, we had one political party (the Democrats) pretending that nothing was going right over there, and we had the other political party (the Republicans) pretending that everything was going right over there. (In other words, BOTH are to blame) In the meantime, the Iraqis get hurt by our own self-obsession.
Things are failing because we have been so self-focused that we have failed to stop and ask "what do we need to do to improve the situation?" We have sat and argued about pre-war intelligence, about whether we should call it a civil war or not, about whether the Iraq war is part of the greater war on terror or a separate war, etc. In the meantime, we seem to have forgotten about.... the Iraqis.
What I find interesting about the Iraq Study Group report- which works under the assumption that we're "losing"- is that the people who seem to object to the report the most are the Iraqis. The reason: I think they see that America is getting bored,
Scott, as a preacher, you should be well aware that prophecy is one of the gifts of the spirit, not something that can be conjured up when you want it to be there.
A few words from the Old Testament come to mind as well...(KJV)
Ecclesiastes 3
1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
We are IN a time of war. It is what it is, no more, no less.
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