Don’t get caught up in rhetoric, think for yourself
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Editor,
This quote from a long article I “googled” about the Taliban, their history, and their function: “The Clinton administration initially supported the Taliban’s rise. Clinton’s judgment was clouded by the question that has often led American policy astray in the region. Who can best check Iran’s influence? In the 1980s, the Reagan administration armed and financed Saddam Hussein under the assumption that a totalitarian Iraq was more acceptable than an unbridled, Islamic Iran. The policy backfired in the form of two wars, one of which has yet to end.”
Now, we each can get as angry and upset as we want about our brave young men and women being killed both in Iraq because of Saddam Hussein and Afghanistan because of the Taliban, but let’s be clear about how this has all come about. In very recent history, we have supported, financed and armed the very regimes and radical groups we now spend billions and billions of dollars and precious American lives fighting.
Where is the sense in all this? Is France perhaps next? After all we became so angry at that nation that we changed the names of our foods to “freedom fries” and “freedom toast” to the cheers and jeers of angry Americans.
What motivates us individually motivates us collectively as a nation. That is a fact. Just what are our true values? What are our true objectives? What is our purpose? Do we each think for ourselves or are we so caught up in the rhetoric of politicians fighting for positions of power that we are unable to think for ourselves with compassion, thoughtful logic and reason?
I often wonder about this.
Bob McClellan
Polson
