“May they reach a point where the fighting is not needed and there’s peace on earth.”

if only foreign policy and corporate interests weren’t so complicated, devious and corrupt, i might try to sympathize. but when there are tons of people around the world being slaughtered in coups, occupations, invasions, proxy wars - even in the last 50-60 years who arent remembered (and become quick blurbs in history books - IF THAT) over state/corporate interest and “freedom fighting” (enemies our corporations and governments helped create through foreign interests from petrol to the fruit you get on your table), its really hard to take such a naive stance. anyone who actually believes theyre not in Iraq to set up a puppet to filter out the second largest remaining recoverable oil fields on earth needs to grow up.

or, if they have no material interest in the region, they dont send the “freedom fighters” in for ‘liberation’: case in point, Rwanda, where a majority of the genocide was done with machete. or just take Darfur, 200k-300k dead already. cant do anything there because our ‘Freedom Leaders’ in Washington are in bed with the ones committing the atrocities.

the only thing to be sad about on this day is that these people were targeted for other peoples interests.

Posted by Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said from Everywhere on 09/11/08 at 08:43 AM ET

Wrong day for this kind of talk. 

Wrong place for this kind of talk.

Posted by HockeyJoe from NY on 09/11/08 at 09:01 AM ET

if only foreign policy and corporate interests weren’t so complicated, devious and corrupt, i might try to sympathize.

You’re obviously irritated with your country.

Maybe you should, you know, move.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 09/11/08 at 09:29 AM ET

As HockeyJoe said, this may be the wrong day for Flow My Tears to express himself so vigorously. But if you believe that what our troops have always fought and died for is to protect our rights, then you have to accept the fact that sometimes the right of free speech will be used to criticize those very actions.

I love ya, Chief, but I think that saying people who disagree with your views should “you know, move” is the wrong approach. Tell him he’s an ungrateful SOB, but acknowledge the fact that your service (and the service of countless others) gives him the right to be an ungrateful SOB...and to stay here in this country while he’s being that, you know, ungrateful SOB.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 09/11/08 at 10:08 AM ET

OTC, I have no doubt that you are correct.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 09/11/08 at 11:24 AM ET

That doesn’t mean that this person deserves a smack upside the head any less, OTC. 

Sympathy for innocent people who are killed shouldn’t have a, “But only if I agree with policy points X, Y, and Z” attached to it.

When innocent people die, I am saddened.  If one innocent person were to die in the crossfire of an military operation that would save a billion lives, I would be sad because an innocent person died.  Afghan, Iraqi, American, the nationality doesn’t matter. 

Over 3,000 innocent people died today.  That’s a horrible, horrible thing.  It doesn’t diminish the suffering of any other group of people, be they Georgian, Rwandan, Serbian, etc.  It is all sad, it is all awful, it is all tragic.  It all hurts.

That’s all I know.  Today marks the anniversary of a horrible series of events, and it’s a sad, sad day, regardless of one’s political beliefs.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/11/08 at 01:34 PM ET

That doesn’t mean that this person deserves a smack upside the head any less, OTC.

Actually, it does, George. Confront those you have disagreements with. Challenge their (misguided) thinking. But a “smack upside the head” is exactly what they want you to do. It proves to them that your reaction to an opposing view is violence.

I know the 9/11 experience is an emotional one. But that emotion should never override the values for which those who have died since that day have sacrificed their lives.

Flow My Tears has a complaint. Listen to what he has to say...and explain to him where he’s wrong if that’s what you believe. Then simply remind him that the sacrifices of those he rails against are the very acts that allow him to express his opinion.

And just so it’s clear, I served in the Army from 1969-1971. I did it (as a military conscientious objector) because I believed (and still believe) in both the right to free speech and our responsibility to serve when called. Honor one without the other and I think you fail to understand what this country is all about.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 09/11/08 at 05:22 PM ET