Have you ever had a conversation....(this is a rant sort of)

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and that conversation stuck in your head long after it was finished, but then you start thinking up responses that would have stopped them in their tracks? I had one of those types of conversations today. It was of course about the war and the troop increase.

Recently, one of the ladies that I work with, who is a huge supporter of the Democratic Party and is totally against the war found out that I was in the Marine Corps. So she was asking my view on more troops going over. I explained to this woman, I'll call her D, sending more troops is not a bad thing. The bad thing is that the troops are not allowed to respond to a lot that is going on. For instance, if an insurgent is seen planting a bomb on the side of the road nothing can be done because that guy is not actively threatening that military persons life. If that insurgent was shooting at the military member then he can shoot back but if not that member really can not do anything but wait until he plants the bomb then call someone to come disarm it or whatever they would do in that instance. However, if there are more eyes to see what was going on or more frequent patrols to see what is going on that could be a deterrent or at least a way to defuse a situation before it happens. But these are not the things that stick in my mind - this was just a general direction of the conversation.

Then the conversation changed and D began saying we should have never gone there and who are we to tell these people they need a democracy. She, of course, went on to say the things that I have hear before - the conditions are worse now than when Saddam was in power and we just need to leave there because enough of our people have died for nothing. This conversation took place when I was on my lunch hour and my lunch was ending so I could only respond quickly to some of what she said. So I took the most prominate one I could which was our people have died for nothing. I asked her how could she know that? I said none of the newspapers tell you what was happening when these people have died. I went on to tell her about this story and the countless others I have read about some of the most noble, heroic and self-less acts. I said you don't know what is actually happening so of course it all seems bad and that it is all for not. It was at that point I had to go back to work.

No matter how hard I tried not to think about it I still kept repeating the parts of the conversation that I didn't get a chance to answer. Especially the part about who are we to tell these people they have to have a democracy (she also said a democracy wouldn't work there).

Now I am ready so when this conversation comes up again (and it will) I can tell her exactly who we are, why there should be a democracy and why it would work there. To me it is actually very simple. And this is why - because Saddam was unpredictable. There was enough information to show that there were somethings that were going on that were not safe for us or any other country and rather than be re-active we had a President that was pro-active.

Who are we to tell them they need democracy? I think that would be us, because we just destroyed their government and it would extremely irresponsible, not to mention incredible dangerous for us not to help re-build there government. And when you think about it for a moment what choices do we have other than democracy? Are we really going to go into a country tell them hey, we are going to get rid of the oppressive dictator that has killed many of your countrymen simply because he didn't like there "kind", but you know we are going to leave you here to figure out what you are going to do now that you have no government or infrastructure of any kind, hell you don't have even a treasury anymore but good luck to you. Or better yet, maybe we should invite someone else to come in our stead like communism or socialism or hey, how bout another dictator?

A democracy won't work there? Why? Why won't democracy work there? Because they never had it before? Guess what - Neither did we. But it was figured out. And we had a democracy in which we oppressed people. Are we so quick to forget our history that one time there was segregation and before that was slavery. Or how about at one time women weren't allowed to vote or own land? That isn't a form of oppression? Who are we to say democracy won't work?

Yep, I think that is what I will say. At least I am prepared for next time.

Isn't this a little contradictory?

I found this article through the World Daily News article. I am wondering why it is a problem for two religions to pray next to each other and how that would create a problem. Isn't asking for you own prayer room going to further segregate muslims? I don't have a problem praying next to a muslim but are they going to have a problem praying next to me?

What to do with Iran....

It looks like Iran is trying to play both side of the field without stepping foot on it...I wonder if there is anyone out there that still thinks Iran doesn't have their own agenda.