While you're at it...how about abolishing ALL armed forces?  Fire all the cops, too...we don't need to protect ourselves anymore. 

Might as well set all the prisoners free, too. 

"My fellow Americans...I'm pleased to tell you today that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes."

Oh boy here we go traffic spike!!!

"we don't need to protect ourselves anymore. "

No disrespect, but what are we protecting ourselves from again?

"...what are we protecting ourselves from again?"
No disrespect but...
...we're protecting ourselves from those that want to destroy everything that we hold dear - freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, etc... Don't remember 9-11? Don't remember seeing people in other countries dancing in the streets when over 3000 americans died that day. Who are they? Lots dood... research it a little bit. It's not just Al-Qaeda that hates us.

... so i ask you... why lock your door at night or set your alarm for your car?

oh boy. here we go!

...but I do agree... It is time to bring the troops home... not all at once though.

Looks like some people bought the whole fear message in a big gulp. I don't know why removing my shoes at the airport is protecting freedom of speech. I know it's not protecting my freedom of choice (Freedom of choice really protected? What about abortion?). I guess I do have a choice not to take the plane, I suppose. As far as freedom of religion - so far the only religious places that were bombed are mosques. Remember that freedom of religion also means the choice to be a muslim, not just a christian. There are fundamentalist christians as there are fundamentalist muslims, as the Talibans are. We can disagree with them, but freedom of religion is freedom of religion. You can't really impose christian values on all religions. Yet, that's what we are attempting to do on a major scale.

Now, I'm wondering who's destroying everything that "they" hold dear, such as their freedom or religion which includes the way they run their lives. Pre-emptive strike in case they do it to us first? "They" (actually a dozen guys or so) destroyed two buildings, we destroyed whole cities with lots of innocent people. I guess that two wrongs make a right?

How scared would you be with incessant bombs falling on your city during several nights, not knowing if it's going to fall on your house or apartment? How would you feel for the safety of your family and children? Especially, if you had nothing to do with 9/11, and could do nothing about changing the minds of the invader "who is doing this for your freedom"? How about fully armed soldiers banging on your door in the middle of the night, terrorizing everyone including children, your family members being taken away, and not knowing what happened to them for several months?

You're right, it's not just Al-Qaeda that hates us. There are many more ordinary people that hates us now because of US foreign policy and the thinking that every country wants to have our type of politics (democracy?), our religion, our lifestyle, and fast-food joints.

9/11, yes. Unforgettable. Instead of frame-freezing the event into blind paranoia that chips away at personal freedom, and freedom of speech day by day, in North America - why not look back at the real reasons WHY 9/11 happened, and WHY now they tell us we have to watch our backs? There's more to this state control over individual liberties than meets the eye. Always look to who gains the most by those extreme protective measures.

Everyone realizes how futile and temporary military interventions in Irak and Afghanistan are. We cannot re-write centuries of histories in 5, 10, even 20 years for those countries. They have to progress at their own speed. The actual governments put in place are corrupt to the core even as we are there giving them support. What will it be when we leave?

It's all a question of money and control. Who make the most money from those wars right now? Short answer: all those who supply the wars. Who pays for it? You and me through taxes and through humongous loans that will have to be repaid with tremendous interest. Who is controled the most as far as internal security? You and me. Homeland Security is created for domestic surveillance. They can listen to anything, intercept e-mail messages, enter your home, search, detain you, at any time for any length of time without charge, lawyer, trial, and you've got nothing to say. It's not because it did not happen to you that it cannot happen to you. The system is in place. The excuse - prevent terrorism. NSA, CIA could not (officially) spy on its own countrymen. Could not entirely rely on CISIS in Canada to spy on americans in exchange for NSA and CIA to spy on canadians. Too long to exchange all that information. So, the US government had to find a way to do it. Answer: Homeland Security. But, first, the goverment had to find a way that the american people would gobble the whole deal voluntarily, without question. Bingo! 9/11 + trumped up excuses to go to Irak. Don't catch Bin Laden, although it would have been easy at one time. They knew where he was, and when, but decided not to go. First, he's a family member of a prominent family, friends with the Bushes. Nevertheless, we are used to movies with a good guy and bad guy. When the bad guy is caught or killed - the movie is over. To keep the movie going, you've got to have a supply of bad guys. If you don't have any? Well...you create them. How can you be a good guy if there are no bad guys around?

How about preventing that people hate us in the first place? How about giving people from other countries to settle their own matters their own way? Whenever we interfered politically and militarily in a country, it always backfired at great financial and life costs for both sides - usually more on their side. Don't we ever learn? We were better than the french in Indochina (Vietnam), and better than the Russians in Afghanistan? In Afghanistan, we're fighting the very same people we supplied with weapons to oust the Russians out. We supplied Saddham Hussein to fight Iran. Are we nuts, or what?

Maybe we're preventing a bunch of terrorists from putting bombs in malls and public transit. Let's say that there are 5,000 potential terrorists in America. Just a number. Pick your own. So, because of those 5,000 potential terrorist or whatever number, over 300 million people are having their personal freedom taken away, bit by bit, in the name of Al-Qaeda. They can truly say, "Mission accomplished". Isn't the goal of terrorist to instill fear, and disrupt some quality of life? Are you really afraid?

See, I have a machine at home that repels elephants. It prevents them from coming on my lawn. What? You doubt? Do you see any elephants in my yard? Now, if I can have people buy-in my machine as Homeland Security has sold theirs to the american public for terrorists, I will be a multi-millionnaire...:)

Oh boy! I feel you Missy!
Gary are you happy now?!?!

Richard Nailed it!

And dont talk to me about September 11, please. I lived it, I was injured in it and lost 3 Cousins amoung others.
Do I think 19 hijackers actually did it alone? Come on now... But thats another story...

Show me proof of the Weapons of Mass distructions we are still hunting for...

I'm as red blooded an American as the next person but,I am not going to get blinded by the bullshit
it wants to feed us. We want to get invloved in everyones shit and then not take the stench of its smell.

Please stop watching so many Michael Bay movies, in every sceane an American flag is waving, stop your pride
and read a book and learn about OUR country and why others have the right to feel the way they do towards us.
This country was founded on terrorism.

When George Bush announced the bombing of Afghanistan had started, he said, "We are a peaceful nation."

Well, obviously Bush hasn't read any history and does not remember any history, even the history of his own time,
because the United States has been involved in wars and military actions for a very long time.

You can't tell the Native Americans we were a peaceful nation as we moved across the continent and engaged in hundreds of wars against the Indians.
The United States engaged in at least twenty military interventions in the Caribbean in the first twenty years of the last century.
And then from World War II through today, we've had an endless succession of wars and military interventions.

Just five years after the end of the most disastrous war in world history, after World War II, we are at war in Korea.
And then almost immediately we are helping the French in Indochina, supplying 80 percent of their military equipment,
and soon we are involved in Southeast Asia. We are bombing not only Vietnam but Cambodia and Laos.

In the 1950s, we are also involved in covert operations, overthrowing the governments of Iran and Guatemala.
And almost as soon as we get involved in Vietnam, we are sending military troops into the Dominican Republic.
In that period, we are also giving enormous amounts of aid to the government of Indonesia, helping the dictator Suharto
carry on an internal war against the opposition, in the course of which several hundred thousand people are killed.

Then the U.S. government, starting in 1975, provides critical support to Indonesia's brutal campaign to subdue the people
of East Timor, in which hundreds of thousands of people are killed.

We are protecting ourselves from the people who are strapping bombs to little girls and sending them into crowded marketplaces.  Trust me...if these people could blow up the Superbowl on live TV...they'd do it.  They love the notion that their cowardly deeds are causing us to divide ourselves into reds and blues, lefts and rights...it weakens our country because we're too afraid of hurting someone's feelings by standing up for ourselves after we get caught letting a bunch of cowards slip thru the cracks of our own society killing 3,000 innocent human beings with a couple of box cutters. 

Shoot, Gary, in all due respect, how many times do you get your products/ideas stolen -- are you turning the other cheek?  I mean...did Ivan in Texas really cost you millions of dollars in lost revenue?  Did you do something about it when someone stole your camera in NY?  When someone stole tools at the ranch?  Is "do nothing" really an effective solution?  You've got security out the wazzoo and lawyers and private investigators, etc., etc...don't you take any comfort in these concepts on a global scale?  (Just curious...)

You said it right here on your blog that you are fan of game theory.  Say what you want about the evil George Bush...but would you rather have gone into Iraq and not found WMD's or would you rather have not gone in...and had them used against you?  We got the heck out of Iraq prematurely once before -- 1991 -- and look what we got...Osama Bin Laden.  Bail out of there now...Iran swoops in and in a few years Osama Bin Laden is gonna look pretty tame compared to what Ahmadinejad (nice try on the spelling) will produce.  Iran wasn't too nice to us during the Carter administration...we'll see how they are under the Obama administration. 

I don't care who you vote for...you cannot ignore threats to your freedom. 

I need some sleep now. 

Dan, i always love your posts. Here's my response:

When those tools got stolen, I didn't blow up your house.

Dan changed his profile pic from one post to another I was like wow this is alot of posting in a matter of minutes.
This is going to get too complicated and people are going to start those 10 days battles with religion added into it
and embryos and the whole 9 yard so I quite while Im ahead...

"When those tools got stolen, I didn't blow up your house."
ouch!

Now, how many terrorist attacks have we had in the US since 911?

Nice way to disrespect our president, America, and our soldiers all in one post. Fairly disgusting, if you ask me. Anyone who bashes bush is as trite and bandwagon-happy as a teenage girl who plays Britney Spears on the way to her prom. Someday, small people will learn that you can't blame the problems of the world on one man.

It is wonderful that we live in a country where we can express our opinions freely, and even mock a President without being arrested. I wonder if all the people that so casually and dogmatically criticize President Bush really believe that he is callous, and that he is simply a warmongering, selfish bureaucrat, carrying out the dictates of some government conspiracy to gain more wealth and take over the world. It is sometimes scary,and sometimes amusing, to hear the sweeping statements and judgments that people make about someone they don't know personally. The media puts out all this speculation, accusation, and bad attitudes about the government, leaders and the United States, sowing discord and discontent, and then they immediately go out and take a poll about "public opinion" They then report it as if the people they are polling came up with these ideas and attitudes on their own, and that they had nothing to do with forming those opinions. How different would the polls be if the media were reporting all the good that is done by the government and leaders.

Do we NEED war? Do we need "police"? Do we need "law"? If you think man (humanity) is basically good, then you could legitimately hope that we would each and all be content, and not try to take something from someone else. If you believe that the Iranian president would only use nuclear weapons for good, then you don't know the heart, and are not paying attention to what they have clearly expressed. They want to wipe out Israel, and every Jew, and throw in the United STates for good measure. The Bible is clear, and our hearts if honest, agree that we are all basically selfish at heart, and think of self first, and others second. We needed forgiveness, and our lives individually are spent trying to prove otherwise, or are brought to the point of seeing our failure, admitting it, and receiving the free gift of mercy.

Now that I have brought God, and human nature into the debate, I am sure we will hear all kinds of accusations against Christians being responsible for war, etc. A world without war, government, and police may have the appearance of being right, but in the reality that we live in, it is like burying your head in the sand. We need to be governed, and there needs to be people willing to die to protect freedoms. Anyway, did any of you need to be taught to say "No"? Do any of you have children who needed to be trained to rebel, say "No", and take toys away from other children. I doubt it. We come out of the womb perfectly ready to assume our role as king in our kingdom.

Enough.

I guess it is believed "peace thru nothing to protect us"?  Should we lay down our arms and be so ignorant as to think we will not be attacked because we hold up our hands and say, "don't attack us, we're unarmed?"  If people believe that then you do not know the mindset of terrorists...they don't care if you are armed or not, their whole intention is to do away with our way of life and they gladly die trying.  And poor Israel. Every country around them wants to do away with them.  We not only need to protect ourselves but also Israel.  We will always have war as long as the human heart is as it is without being changed.  Did you ever think of why we do not have any terrorist attacks here so far?  It is because we have them occupied over there..better over there than over here. I wonder if the next president is a democrat and gets us out of Iraq and the terrorists follow us to over here, if you will be bashing that president..We are getting off kinda easy in Iraq..during the battle of Normandy, how many soldiers died? Over 5,000 per day..how many in this Iraqi squirmish?  Doesn't even compare.  Evil flourishes when good people do nothing. Our country is the symbol of freedom throughout the world and it is our duty to rid the world of it's tyrants.  BUT, having said that, it will not work unless our country is right with God and you can see we are no where near it..we are going to fall if we continue as we are with the immorality in America.  We have a moral obligation to the world.  See who the next president is and see if you will critize him/her with the same ferver as you do Bush..especially if they take us out and we have attacks here.

How many here want al qaeda to take control of Iraq? If we bring the troops home now, then that is exactly what will happen. This is a war for our national security, because without the oil from that region our country would be vulnerable to economic collapse, and wouldn't even be able to defend ourselves militarily. If we were more self sufficient, by drilling for oil in Anwar Alaska, this wouldn't have been as necessary. The Democrats have done everything they could to prevent drilling in Alaska, putting us in this precarious situation. You think our economy is bad now, but consider what would happen if we lost all oil we get from the middle east.

And that's a good thing...because I'm not training tool thieves in my basement or forcing my children to hate you because you have more stuff than I do. 

I also didn't fly any suicide passenger planes into your barn...or ram an explosive-packed canoe into your yacht...

Gary, what if your family was assaulted?
You would call on the police and the police would take the criminal down. Even by deadly force if necessary.

We took Saddam down by deadly force. War is unfortunate and I hate it. Any civil person hates war. Yes, Republicans and Conservatives hates war too.

On taking Saddam down, the jury is still out. Did we do the right thing by removing him from power? He certainly was a buffer between Iran and the Middle East.

But hindsight is 20/20, and who knows if he wouldn't have gotten into bed with Ahmadinijad?

And even more, can we expect to see change in a Muslim country? They do not believe in our style of gov't at all. And I'm not sure we are going to change that.

We went in with good intentions, but was it the best move? I'm not sure it was.