This comes from a reader that clearly has not interacted with American Troops:
"but I would ask a question. How would you behave if a stronger, bullier country would send hundreds of thousands of soldiers to find someone who does not exist and under this cover they would exploit you in the media, take all the raw materials (oil or poppy) out of your country leaving nothing behind and rape your children? Don't you think that if you could get a gun or bomb, you would try to kill some of those soldiers? I think you would. And in the same time, I think most Eastern countries think America IS the nest of global terror."
Realize, I speak from the experience of having actually having served in both Iraq and in Afghanistan. Realize, I have continued to maintain sources of information on what is really going on in both places.
You have raised several issues, most of which are patently false, though propagated in the propaganda machines of communists and islamists. I will assume you have come to believe the propaganda, rather that you propagate a known falsehood.
Let's start with the existence and search for Osama bin Ladin being the "reason" and "cover" for us being there. While OBL does exist, he is not the primary threat. We are fighting terrorists and searching for people planning and directing the terrorists operations that kill not only Americans, but also Brits, Spaniards, Russians, Indians, and more than any other group: Muslims.
Stealing Oil & Poppy? The United States has not taken one barrel of oil without paying market prices for it. Correction: The US has accepted oil for operations from our old ally, Kuwait. Iraq has been paid market prices for the oil we have bought from them to conduct operations to ensure their Freedoms, Safety, and Security. In fact, Iraq is producing more oil today than it did in 2002 and will be producing almost twice as much by 2010.
In Afghanistan, the US has led the way in paving their roads, developing their electricity, building schools, and teaching their doctors, just as we have in Iraq.
Raping Children? Nope, not a chance. While the enemy engages in rape and it has been proven that Afghani children have at times been kidnapped to take to Iran, the US Military takes a very staunch position against rapists. There has been a single case of it and the despicable criminal who had managed to wear a US Uniform was tried and convicted of his crime, never to see the light of day again. We will not tolerate rapists, period.
In fact, one need only look back to the protests in London to see that the enemy openly calls for rape.
The differences between the US (and allies) and our enemies:
We build schools. The enemy attacks school girls with acid and firebombs schools.
We build hospitals. The enemy attacks Doctors and Nurses.
We risk our own lives to prevent civilian casualties. The enemy purposely explodes bombs in the midst of markets, mosques, funerals, weddings, and playgrounds. The enemy purposely attacks civilians and kill more Muslims than does any other force and they kill more Muslims than they kill any other group.
The enemy wishes to force an intolerant, tyrannical government upon the people by use of terror and violence. The US Military protects the people from terrorists so that they can vote, choosing their own leaders, their own form of government and peaceably change their own leaders at their discretion.
The US teaches Afghanis and Iraqis how to secure their own Nations while preserving Human and Civil Rights of the people they safeguard. The enemy attacks those people in their desire to set up a tyrannical government that would not allow either Human nor Civil Rights.
Neither Afghanis nor Iraqis are my enemy. On the contrary they are Our Allies and they are working hard to secure their own Nations from our common enemy. And that enemy is doing those things which you have falsely assumed to be the crimes of Our Troops.
While our reaction to these enemies began in earnest following the attack on 9/11 which killed nearly 3,000 civilians, this war began decades ago. The enemies we now fight took our diplomats hostage in Tehran in 1978. They attacked our embassies in Kenya & Tanzania. They attacked the USS Cole. They murdered a wheel chair bound man in the Mediterranean. They murdered a Sailor aboard an airplane. They attacked the World Trade Center in the 90's.
Where our enemies have gained the reins of power, they have run over the arms of young boys with cars, hung women from cranes for daring to reveal her face, stoned women to death for failing to remain in her house, banned young girls from learning to read, hung homosexuals for their sexual orientation, and used those Nations for bases to attack us.
What would I or other Americans do if they came to our shores? This is not a hypothetical question but an historical answer: We have pursued them back to their caves and freed their people from their tyrannies. But unlike our enemies, we target only those that have chosen to take up arms against us, whereas the enemy shrinks from us and prefers to kill the Muslims which they hope to one day rule again in tyranny. And because of our fairness, our generosity, and the freedoms we've protected, we have today two new allies: Iraq and Afghanistan and the respect of the populations of those Nations.
War on Terror News©2007-2008, ARM, all rights reserved.