What it means to be a patriot

American citizens would be better off if they honoured their children by not sending them to entirely unnecessary conflicts at all.

Since the introduction of the Industrial Military Complex after WWII the US has been the nation which has been involved in the greatest number of international conflicts by far - approx 79. And this is not simply due to the fact that it is the largest super-power on the planet.

To understand the reasons why America is such a waring nation you have to understand aspects of its domestic politics and economy. There are somewhere in the order of 35 individual US states (a clear majority) which depend heavily on the income from military industries within those states.

That means that there are 35 state governers dependant on the ongoing production and support provided to all the military branches. Cut backs in spending on military resources is a serious problem for the domestic economies of those states which is why such legislation is so difficult to have passed in the senate.

This being the case, the US (especially under republican adminitrations) is often motivated to virtually generate conflicts in order to perpetuate a myth of international instability and propogate paranoia within its sometimes unsupportive constituents in order to prop up its domestic and by extension, national economy.

The world is nowhere near as bad and scary as US governments would have its insular and xenophobic citizens believe and while so many Americans think 'patriotism' is a positive thing the rest of the world just shakes its head and knows that when Americans talk about patriotism it really means nationalism wrapped up in a star-spangled banner and only spells bad news for them.

Just ask the people from the Chagos Islands, Diego Martin and Haiti (the list goes on) who have all had their native lands stolen by the US for either military means or oil exploitation.

ConRad

Thank you, as for my understanding of history, The US has never keep any territory, that has fallen into its hands due to being involved in these conflicts, but has moved to restore the rightful government of the people. Billions of dollars have been spent by the people of the US to help other nations in their struggle for freedom or recovery from a natural disaster. None of these nations were placed under the United states and were returned to their own governmental control as soon as that were stable and able to do so.

We can do more than to bang our head against the wall about what we disagree with, lol.

Many units are doing good work in Iraq. Some units are doing things we wouldn't want to have done to us.

What it means to be a patriot for me...

to be proud of being who I am and where I come from in spite the fact my country is not the best, the most beautiful, the largest, the most powerful and so on and so on....

to live with my co- citizens, to work for my nation, to support my co - citizens, to help those who need my help and share with good and bad with my nation.

to be a better human being.

I pray my Lord for help me with that all. Amen.

I believe most troops are not doing things to harm Iraqi citizens. However, I don't believe we should be there. I believe both sides of the conflict have been driven by powerful interests as they do in many wars.

Thousands of babies are being born with horrible deformities as a result of the depleted uranium and phosphorus munitions we use there. Our government covers up this story. They allow Iraq claims for only 3 months after any incident for compensation. Babies are born after 9 months. Cancer rates have also risen exponentially in Iraq. The story of the effects of these munitions should be front page news of how 10's of thousands of lives are being destroyed, with hundreds of thousands to be effected in the future. But of course, again we don't have a free and open media in the US.

Aswina Smart lady.

Ron - A political blog of sorts... many think we shouldn't talk about things like this here but as long as the discussion is civil and calm, I think there are things to learn.

We agree in some ways and don't in others. That's okay, right?

Rubic - History is full of good intentions ... bad things done for good reasons ... and mistakes ... lots and lots of mistakes. Perhaps what you're pointing out is one of these... I don't know enough about it to have an opinion. Hopefully, regardless of the history, people are working together towards the right things today.

Yes, the news from Libya was an outrageous fabrication of what was happening there, so I don't doubt the same in Syria and even Iran.

I agree that debate and sharing of opinions is good.

Syrian citizens are being killed by their own government. How many should die? When is it too many?

Also - when harm is done to an object, regardless of your feelings about the object, to say that killing is justified is simply stupid.

I don't know what the truth is in Syria. My opinion is that both sides of this conflict are also being manipulated in order to make just cause for invasion.

I heard a prediction that we with UN forces would go into every Arab nation soon. Now it seems to be coming true. If they had no just cause for invading Libya, then I doubt their intentions for invading Syria.

The good news is that many people in the US military are waking up to what is really happening. This might worry some people who refuse to question the government, but it is a good thing. These people won't be so inclined then when they are brought home, to do anything in the name of "homeland security".