Comments on: Why Do Conservatives Love the Military?

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:46:11 +0000

I’m late to this conversation. I think it important that a distinction be made between a neo-conservative and a conservative. The primary differences being a neo-conservative supports an expansionist foreign policy and has little problem with a large, central government. The neo-cons love the military as it is a means to expand power. Conservatives see the military as a means of defense.

Liberals dislike the military because they are rightly seen as an extension of government power. Now liberals are not too opposed to government power, just they prefer their kind of government power. Most liberals recognize that their beef is not with the military, but with the current federal government.

Liberals and neo-cons are practically the same. They both wish to use power to further their agenda. They just have a disagreement over the agenda.

The only rational voices are the conservatives, constitutionalist, and libertarians (well, some of them). They generally support a military based on defense rather than projection of power and some nebulous idea about “national interest” (which normally means selfish interest) and small government.

Many folks are willing to trade liberty for safety (meaning they are willing to “give-up” some of their civil liberties for safety). I do not fall into this category. I would rather face the prospect of dying at the hands of a terrorist and live in the liberty intended by the founders than to sink into some type of peaceful serfdom.

So I guess this is a rambling way of saying that neo-cons support the military because it furthers their agenda and those that oppose the war do so for a number of reasons. Mine is I value individual liberty and constitutional government over safety (since I am told by my government I can’t have both).

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 06:03:29 +0000

I am coming on to this conversation a little late, maybe too late. I am an Airman, reading through this made me pissed off; I’m going to have to agree with CJ. Starting from the beginning, a box of cookies or just a letter that says “thank you for fighting for me” makes all the difference. Another thing, it is very hard to base your facts off of what you get on CNN or FOX, please do not think you know what really goes on unless you have been there. Who said we are not in Afghanistan? We are not fighting the Iraq army or their citizens, but the terrorist inside Iraq. If anything the citizens have helped more than anything else. As far as why we didn’t declare war on Michigan is because you legally cannot declare war on us citizens. At best you can declare martial law, the KKK is declared as a terrorist organization but we can’t declare war on them because they are protected under the US constitution.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:44:53 +0000

It’s a little hard to investigate a connection when evidence is suppressed or eliminated.

By: DougS

DougS — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:03:24 +0000

I must’ve missed the part in the trial where Saddam’s name came up.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:48:43 +0000

Who said there weren’t American’s involved? I seem to recall some white kid from California being found among the Talaban. That doesn’t mean Saddam didn’t provide the resources.

By: DougS

DougS — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:12:29 +0000

Right. No American could have committed that Oklahoma City bombing. Especially not a Christian. Just because Timothy McVeigh and Nichols confessed and were convicted of the crime and all the evidence pointed to them, there’s no way they were behind it.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:42:04 +0000

Aaron, one of the things you fail to understand is Islam. You reason as if the Iraqi’s beliefs are the same as ours. That doesn’t mean that every Iraqi is fond of the effects Islamic teachings, but in many ways diametrically opposed to ours. You also seem to think that envy will make people loving towards us. But that sort of reasoning isn’t realistic.

I, for one, care much more about doing what’s right than I care what anyone thinks of me. And would you say it is right to allow people to declare war on us for years, to bomb our embassies, to kill “peace keepers”, threaten us with dirty bombs that would kill many more people than the planes did…the list goes on. So when does it stop? When do you say enough, and go on the offensive?

Pres Clinton didn’t act appropriately after the Oklahoma City bombing because he didn’t care about American lives or sovereignty. He only cared about the opinion of his European pals. So in response, we got one attempted bombing of the World Trade Center and one successful one. Now that Saddam is dead for only some of the many crimes he committed, we have perhaps finally received justice for the Oklahoma City bombing which there was evidence he was either directly or indirectly involved with. One thing, I guarantee you, the FBI did not solve that case.

By: DougS

DougS — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:20:12 +0000

Thank you, Aaron, for your calm, reasoned posts. I’ve felt compelled to step up here at times when it all the comments were on one side (scroll down and check out the dialog at CJ’s”White House AAR” post). Seems like a lot of people see enemies everywhere and advocate actions that will guarantee these enemies arise where they weren’t before. Perhaps it’s a desire to live in important times requiring a civilization-threatening ideological struggle, instead of a lucky fluke by an organization of several hundred.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:52:30 +0000

Miriam,
I wouldn’t call disbanding the Iraqi army and sending them home while failing to secure their extensive cache of weapons an alert move by our military, would you? So you’ve got a bunch of young, unemployed men with lots of guns, mortars, etc, no electricity, no way to feed their families, a grudge, and a whole lot of time on their hands. If that isn’t a recipe for terrorism, I don’t know what is. Again though I think you have me wrong. I support the military… for defense. Terrorism is a crime, not an act of war. Hence why we are not actually at war right now. This is a job for police, not soldiers or mercenaries. When the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was obliterated by a terrorist attack did the president declare war on Michigan since that’s where McVeigh received his training and support? Um, no. We let the experts handle it. The FBI, Interpol, etc are very good at what they do and soldiers are good at what they do. But there isn’t a lot of overlap between the two. One could also make the argument that America sponsors terrorism, what with the School of the Americas where we trained the Nicaraguan death squads. Imagine for a second that another country decided to forgo international law and the consensus of the rest of the world and attempt to invade American soil to right those wrongs. Let’s say somebody like China, whose standing army is close to our entire population, so that our combined military forces would be overwhelmed. What do you think Americans all over the country would do? I’m pretty sure they’d take up arms to repel the invaders. So why is it so surprising that Iraqi’s would do the same thing? Sure, compared to our bloated American standard, their lives under Saddam were probably rather unenjoyable. But how are they doing now? Several hundred thousand dead, 2 million refugees, no promised oil revenues, no electricity, civil war, and so on. I just fail to see how this is protecting America. Help me understand how you see it differently, because all I see is a generation of Iraqi children growing up hating America and moving one step closer to strapping on a dynamite vest. I’m not trying to be argumentative here, I really just don’t see how protecting America is related to killing innocent people, defying international treaty and running up crippling debt to pay for it all.
Aaron

By: Miriam

Miriam — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:26:56 +0000

Having been there and done that, Aaron, I’d say your front line in the battle against Islamic terrorists is rather narrow. If you aren’t careful, the enemy will surprise you from behind. Or if they don’t, it will be thanks to many more alert Americans like our military.

So where is the front line? Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria immediately come to mind. That’s not to say we have or will have troops in all of those places, but they (among others) are the key players. There are also serious struggles going on in other less noticeable places such as most of northern Africa and, would you know it, Indonesia. I haven’t checked on how hot the Philippians are these days, but I’m keeping an eye on Michigan…yes, right here in the US.

So you can keep your blinders on, if you like. You can even call me paranoid. I know that I know what I’m talking about. And maybe some day, you will get to see the whole picture, at which time you’ll be thanking the US military for saving your warm armchair for you!