Quote:
Originally posted by DZHBrown
*Our military and our president deserve respect, whether you like the cause or not.
*Why should the opinion of others be shoved in my face and disrupt anyone's day?
*What is being acheived? The war has started and it won't stop because some people oppose it.
*A large number of protestors cannot come up with an intelligent argument against it.
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1) Why should our military and president deserve respect if they don't earn it? Respect should not be inherent in the position. Should a military man who rapes and tortures be respected? Of course not. Depending on your political and moral views, Richard Nixon and/or Bill Clinton may not be deserving of your respect either, but they were both presidents. Both the military and the government, like everyone else, need to earn respect. To me, the military has my respect, but there are several reasons why George W. Bush does not.
2) Why should the opinion of others be shoved in MY face and disrupt my day? We are at war, and there are lots of people who are of the opinion that we should be . . . that is shoved in my face every time I turn on the TV or go to Greekchat or pick up a paper or whatever. I will agree with you that those protesters who are interrupting traffic seem to be sort of . . . anti-productive, but hey, not everybody who is anti-war is out there lying down in front of traffic. That's just a small amount of us.
Again, America has, fortunately, the freedom of speech. That's why we have to have other peoples' opinions shoved in our face no matter what. And honestly, when it comes down to having to listen to opinions I don't agree with (maybe annoying, but ultimately harmless) or not be allowed to express myself at all, I'll pick the former over the latter every time.
3) What is being achieved? People are being allowed to state their opinions, exercising the freedom of speech, one of the great things about America and other free countries. The world is being shown that not all of America agrees with war. And the president is being shown just how much of America disagrees with him. I read somewhere that this is the most protesting that has ever happened in America BEFORE a war actually started, and it will probably only increase as the war continues, if it continues for an extended period of time. And what kind of role models would we be for our kids if we just shut up every time we disagreed with the government's actions?
4) I will give you the fourth one, sort of. There are plenty of protesters who think it's all about oil. While oil is clearly a part of the issue here, it is by no means the only one or even the major one, and to claim that it is is overly simplistic when the real issue is far more complex than that. But at the same time, there are also plenty of protesters who are informed and DO know what they're talking about. And the same could be said for those who are pro-war -- there are plenty of them who aren't informed and don't have a legitimate reason for it either. (I don't consider "Because the president says so" a legitimate reason.) I don't think ignorance is ever limited to just one side of the argument.