Clay, you seem to agree with what I am saying that gun control causes crime rates to skyrocket. I have heard mind-blowing reports of crime increasing as much as 300% in Austrailia or in certain localities within that country because of gun control. America is violent, but gun control will make the problem worse if these statistics are any indication.
To address what you said about Islamic fundamentalists already wanting to kill us; You are correct. We are living in very volatile times, and there are very hard decisions around this conflict. America has been polarized into two camps: one that supports the war with Iraq, and one that does not support it.
I can understand the logic in both camps. But I ask the question for those who support the war, can we kill ALL the people that want to kill us before they do? Do we dare to attempt to preemptively strike at ALL who would murder us or cherish the notion? In picking on Iraq, we are seeming like hypocrites, because we are only picking a fight we think we can win, and leaving everybody else alone, because we aren't up to taking them ALL on.
If we kill the so called enemies in Iraq, the inspiration for the fundamentalist Muslims that are anti-U.S. will still thrive and perhaps be encouraged by our actions in Iraq.
THE WAR IN IRAQ WILL DO NOTHING TO STOP THE RADICAL MUSLIMS INSPIRATION TO DESTROY AMERICA(NS)!
Other militant groups are just going to rise up to replace them and we only injure our cause by making them "martyrs" for their cause.
Am I right about this or not?
We're dealing with a new threat and new consequences for going to war.
I am a conservative, I like President Bush. I am strongly for Missle Defense, for example. But I feel that this war of Bush is grevious and full of presumption for reasons I won't go into here.
The death toll for our coalition forces is very high when you compare it to the casualties in the Gulf War in 1991 (I don't know how many died, I will research). This is hard to ignore. Anyway, I love America, but this war IS wrong.
Please contribute to this healthy debate on the war. We need creative solutions for these difficult problems.
By the way, don't be thrown that I pointed out that our enemies tend to be "muslims", because, well, they ARE (the media avoids this obvious distinction of our enemies). I only bring this out to clarify the situation and bring out the religious elements that certainly define our present conflicts, not to promote bigotry or fear. The doctrine of Islam, the Quaran, is not peaceful, but violent. There ARE many peaceful, moderate Muslims, but they really don't help because they are afraid to censure (and don't) the radical ones, and because they know the Quaran supports violence against "the infidels". Let's face it, not all of our fellow Muslims act like Cat Stevens who seems like Ghandi or something. There I go again, saying too much. Oh that all the Muslims of the world were as Cat Stevens...
But, in my view, killing them is NOT the answer, though it may seem the only answer to some people because of the threat. Creative Solutions? Any ideas?
