That old phrase about “the banality of evil”… I think of that every time I see some fox news anchor talking about the evil islamofascists.

And we will kill any that stand in the way of our empirical goals.

The word you are looking for here is imperial. Empirical means “provable or verifiable by experience or experiment”. So you are claiming that we will kill anyone who stands in the way of science. And that clearly is not happening right now.

Disagreeing with the war effort is one thing (I personally don’t think we should have gone into Iraq inthe first place), but to call us a nation of murderers (and that is based on the efforts of our soldiers through our nation’s history) is quite……

I believe that this all began with Vietnam. We killed 3 million Vietnamese (genocide) and failed to understand why. We have never accepted that fact. Unless we finally acknowledge that we are as capable as evil as any other nation we will continue to think of ourselves as “the leader of the free world”. This is a lie.

BTW I am a Vietnam veteran. I really wish that Americans would own up to what we did (and are doing!) and begin the long healing process.

Though you don’t identify your own political affiliation, you do seem to prize candor somewhat, so here’s another truth; anyone who supports the President and the current Administration is an advocate of treason, and truly hates America.

You can’t condem a populace because they’ve been tricked by their government. Surely we all have some responsibility for what our government has done. Whether we deserve it or not, we will pay the price. We paid it on 911, and we’ll continue to, theres no doubt about that. That doesn’t mean we should judge others by the actions of a few though. Much the same logic was used to commit genocide in the past. Native Americans, Jews, you name it. When you remove the individual human elements of a population and see them as enemies, murder becomes all to easy. We can’t let that happen to other groups (Iraqis, Iranians, etc.), and we can’t afford to think about ourselves that way either. Instead we must try to find the individual human elements in others that will allow our compassion to outweigh our fear. We all a lot more alike than we are different, we just need to have the bravery to see that in others. Only then will we know shame for our actions and the actions of those we put into power, and only then will we be able to do something about it.

I understand your sentinment. I just think you’re falling into the “US” verses “THEM” mentality that those in power use to keep us from uniting. Instead of hating your fellow citizens for not doing enough, feel sorry for them for their ignorance, and help them understand the issues.

Be glad you’re far away. The vibe here is like being inside a room full of sedated people.

When the streets are overrun with citizens outraged, then something might happen, but that kind of protest seems to have been co-opted by the mental grip of consumerism and every other trinket and distraction Americans believe so “important”. Try to figure out how Americans who claim to care about their nation, about this war, about our oil addiction, and still buy an SUV, still use energy like it’s a bunch of endless beach sand.

And the prospect of a draft in a decade, taking my son to god knows where to fight for god knows what…horrifying.