What is the true definition of patriotism: driving around with a flag flying off a pole mounted to the cab of my truck...or...fighting to insure that my personal freedom, privacy, and civil liberties are left intact once the troops come home.
The sea of red white and blue made me nervous from the start.
The problem from the beginning has been the US government and media's transformation of the "enemy" from the Bin Laden and the "Al Queda" network to the Taliban. The Taliban did not attack the US. The are (were) a horifically repressive regime that needed to be dealt with a more geopolitically responsible means.
Now we read the internet service is being "shut down" by the US in Somalia. I have feared from the begining that this irrational patriotism and redistribution of foreign policy would lead to the wholesale dismantling of rights both here in the US and abroad.
I can't help but note the ironic fact that it was the former Bush president who had such difficulties in Somalia and certainly hope there is no real cause and effect between his orginal actions in Somalia and the present Bush's.
Slashdot Mirror
The sea of red white and blue made me nervous from the start.
The problem from the beginning has been the US government and media's transformation of the "enemy" from the Bin Laden and the "Al Queda" network to the Taliban. The Taliban did not attack the US. The are (were) a horifically repressive regime that needed to be dealt with a more geopolitically responsible means. Now we read the internet service is being "shut down" by the US in Somalia. I have feared from the begining that this irrational patriotism and redistribution of foreign policy would lead to the wholesale dismantling of rights both here in the US and abroad. I can't help but note the ironic fact that it was the former Bush president who had such difficulties in Somalia and certainly hope there is no real cause and effect between his orginal actions in Somalia and the present Bush's.