I have a request

Never let it be said I don't give the fans (heh) what they want. Kerry has asked that I reply to his comments in a new post, so here it comes (I'll let him be bold, because bold is sexy):

"It is no suprise that I am against the war." Would you elaborate on your meaning here? This phrase is a continual puzzle to me. (I am not laying traps for you.) To be against something one can infer a person then to be "for" something. So you agree? If so, in the context of your quote above, what are you for?

You are actually quite correct here. I should have made it more clear in tense. I was against the war, in the sense that I did not think that Iraq posed a clear and imminent threat to our country. I was, however, very supportive of the battle in Afghanistan. There was a direct cause and effect retaliatory relationship that made sense in that case. Some people like their wars proactive, I prefer mine reactive. You may say "But look at all the innocent lives lost if you wait for someone to strike first." I say, "Are you saying our troops' lives aren't innocent? How do you know that those deaths were necessary?"

If I may postulate that one of the things you might be for is the attending chorus "bring the troops home now",then what thought have you taken with regard to the impacts and repercussions such a move might bring? For example, suppose oe might agree that our MP's training their police procuces desireable results. Would your desire to bring them home include provisions to perpetuate those good results?

Surprisingly enough, I'm not a 'bring them home now' kind of girl. I am a 'bring them home soon and safely' kind of girl. I want peace as much as the next person, and at this point peace will come about only if we can successfully transfer power into the Iraqis' hands. We did not do this successfully in Afghanistan, and we need to learn that lesson. But transferring power is a difficult thing to do, especially when the people we are giving it to keep ending up dead, possibly by our own troops. (Yes, I did put possibly.)

I support our troops. Gathering to rally against the war is the greatest show of support for the troops possible. No one wants the war to keep going any moment longer than necessary on either side, I hope. War protesters are for the most part peace-loving people who want the troops safe, not "Pro-Hussein, Pro-rape" America-haters. If we hated America we wouldn't care what happened in the war.

Contrarily, if you see only bad results and outcomes, do those outweigh any and all other considerations and arguments? In a parallel vein, one cannot reasonably dispute the evil which evil men are doing against the Iraqi people, and the countervailing force against this evil American troops, (plus Poles, Ukranians,et.al.) are providing. Does your opposition to "the war" make any provisions in this case? Or do you deny that proposition on its face? If so, on what basis or with what reasoning?

Good and evil. Okay, now this just got fun, since we have officially moved beyond politics and into theology.

I see gray. As in tune as I am with the concept of Good and Evil, especially in its End Days/Zoroastrian theme of Good Versus Evil with Man the only one who has the freedom to choose a side, I still find myself seeing in shades of gray. One man's evil is another man's good, and vice versa.

Heaven as I understand it comes with the ability to have all knowledge. Being one with God upon death gives Man the omniscience missing from life here on Earth. There is a possibility that once I die and am all knowledgeable, I will find out that had their been no war, there would have been an attack so violent it would have killed nearly every person on the face of the earth. Boy, would I have egg on my face.

We are humans limited by human knowledge. We can never know everything. What can seem like Evil can actually be a greater good. What seems like Good may be evil to others. And the devil has a pleasing face.

Of course, maybe you just meant good and evil in this world, in a physical sort of way, in which case sorry for the tangent. You can take the girl out of the religion classes...

This thread of questions might be elongated, as there are many skeins here to be wound and unwound. I hope you might respond in a post. I would be glad to post in kind. I'd have begun there had I known where these questions headed, but I'm off to work. Thanks.

Feel free to elongate. I haven't enjoyed a debate this much since Mr. Sticks got too busy to write.