Jason Crighton

Well the peace needs to start soon because I am sick of fighting and wars. It's stupid and doesn't resolve anything. But anyways... we really can't talk shit without people turning around and doing the same to us. I don't know why countries have to get involved with other countries to begin with?? If we simply traded with them and stuff like that, there would be no problem. There are always going to be those people who need to "prove a point" by creating conflict and war with someone they don't really like. I think it's all crap. Men have too much testosterone to rule this world anyways.

Think about your everyday life. There are always people who want to hurt you and try to bring you down. I think that thats is also how the world works. You're completely right though, why is it that we say things about other countries but the minute someone says something about us, we get offended. I honestly think that if peace was ever to come, the world come come to an end. If you think about it that is all that we have done for centuries, fight. That is just human nature.

Like I said in I think Kayla's blog...none of this name calling, and mean stuff will ever end until there is no sexism, racisim, and all the ISMS...I mean look at our daily lives no one can function barely w/o knocking someone else down...Maybe it's American culture? Maybe it's come to a point where we Americans see that there is a lot of work involved in the American dream, and are unhappy so to make ourselves happy we put people down. But despite all of that..We will not have peace until all sides agree on one thing. It sucks. And about us talking shit on other countries and expecting nothing in return...It's because we are "SO GREAT" (and I use that w/the most sarcasm possible) that why would someone want to say bad things about us?? We have a big ego.

Caroline writes, "I don't know why countries have to get involved with other countries to begin with??"

The graves, discovered over the past three months, have not yet been dug up because of the risks posed by the continuing insurgency and the lack of qualified forensic workers, said Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq's interim human rights minister. But initial excavations have substantiated the accounts of witnesses to a number of massacres. If the estimated body counts prove correct, the new graves would be among the largest in the grim tally of mass killings that have gradually come to light since the fall of Mr. Hussein's government two years ago. At least 290 grave sites containing the remains of some 300,000 people have been found since the American invasion two years ago, Iraqi officials say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/international/middleeast/15graves.html?ei=5065&en=c85059724268b94e&ex=1114228800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&position=

I mentioned the mass graves in class the other day. How are the mass graves in Iraq different from the gas chambers of Nazi Europe? Did war accomplish the removal from power of Adolph Hitler? Was diplomacy and economic relations enough to protect the Jews of Europe?

Kayla, humans lie, steal, and murder. That's part of human nature. Where does a society have the right to stop one particular human from behaving according to human nature?

Jen, your statements are valid, but aren't "multiculturalism" and "feminism" also "isms"? Are we wrong for claiming that we are "so great"? In many nations in the world, you wouldn't be able to publish negative things about the government. China, for instance, prohibits its citizens from having free access to the internet.

Is it possible to disagree without resorting to name-calling?

Dr. Jerz,
I do believe you have some very valid points. When contemplating the interventionalist policies of the United States, it is hard to contemplate a boundary between an arbitrary abuse of power and a justified human rights intervention. Saddam Hussein surely committed many egregious human rights violations. Most notably is the use of chemical and biological weapons used against the Kurds as retribution for supporting Iran during the Iraq-Iran war in the eighties. When Hussein was in power behind the facade of the Iraqi president then he ordered the execution of Jews and stricter policies placed on the 100,000 Jews in the country. In fact, before Hussein's asendancy to power, Iraq was home to one of the highest population of Jews in the Middle East.

It is quite hard to describe what human nature is. (We'll leave that to the philosophers.) Humans do lie, steal, murder, and cheat, but they have other qualities, good qualities, that are a part of human nature. Cooperation and altruism (perhaps paternalism) seem to be imbedded in the human spirit as well. If it were not then a society would not have the means necessary to regulate behaviour.

Lastly, the idea of America being so great is partly true; every country has its flaws. Living in Britain for the past few months has been an interesting challenge to my view of the United States. I used to see it in a more cynical and sarcastic kaleidoscope, but now after hearing so many people approach me with very ethnically and geographically diverse backgrounds my understanding has changed. One man from India said that 'America is the greatest country in the world' despite his disagreement with the current Bush administration. Students in my classes have displayed an excited enthusiasm about travelling to America and seeing it. They have a certain reverence for the country, but at the same time they don't always see eye to eye with the Bush administration. Nonetheless, America may be seen as a policeman of the world, but it has often been misjudged as being oppressive--especially to young Americans.

The Iraq war was surely justified for Hussein's idignation of his population if for nothing else. America surely wants to see democracy in the region, but it has often been charged with interests in oil, which is a erroneous accusation. For one, 50% of oil consumed in the United States is domestic from places such as Texas and Alaska. The next 40% comes from other places in the world: Canada, Venezuela, Russia, Angola, and Nigeria. The remaining 10% of this oil comes from the Middle East with the majority sourcing from Saudi Arabia. If anything, it would have been in the national interests of Western Europe, where 30% of its oil derives from the M.E., or even Japan which 80% of its oil import is from the Middle East. So it becomes quite clear that Bush's foreign policy plays down national interests and looks toward something else. His Iraqi policy really coincides with a 'War on Terror' and democratization seems to be the central theme of the administration.

This doesn't discredit that there is at least some national interest, but not what Socialist rhetoric would have you believe.(I do not mean 'socialist' pejoratively, rather I mean the actual term it represents where the Socialist Worker's Party extremely opposes Bush/Blair policies). Nonetheless, civil freedoms such as free access to information and speech are what make America so great too. I definitely agree with you there too. There is so much to be had in this country, and many realize it--which creates a love-hate relationship with America and the world.

J.N.