Patriot.
August 2, 2007
I’m one of those people who initially supported the US and it’s efforts abroad in it’s attempts to curb state-sponsored terrorism by attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban was taking civilization back into the stone ages with barbaric laws that restricted the freedoms and civil rights of women, ethnic minorities, and executed adulterers and homosexuals. Add to this the fact that they were harboring the organization that had attacked the US on 9/11, and you have all the pretext needed for attack. Getting rid of a regime like this, to me, sounded like a good thing.
When the US went further and went to Iraq, I gave the Chief Executive the benefit of the doubt, but due to mismanagement by the civilians in the Pentagon and the lack of support to allow the military to do the job as they see fit, we now find ourselves up a creek without… well, you know. Would I like for us to get out of Iraq? Sure, but unfortunately, there’s no easy way to do this without handing it over to the extremists of Iran. If I had the answers, I’d have sent them to the President already. Sadly, I don’t.
With that said, as a former Marine and someone who considers himself a patriot, I feel that being against the war is not un-American. Heck, there’s a poem which states (and I’m going to paraphrase here) that the person who most prays for peace is the soldier, for it is he who will have to go and fight if diplomacy fails. This is very true. I also feel dissent is a good thing; our country began out of dissent against unfair laws governing the colonists who made up our first citizens.
I was going to say something about Sean Penn being in Venezuela, his speaking with Hugo Chavez, and his impending meeting with him. I decided to refrain from doing so. I came upon a few realizations as I wrote about Chavez and Penn. First, Penn has no real political power in the US. Second, it’s not like he’s helping Chavez plan an invasion of the US. Third, as far as I know, Venezuela, while not friendly with the US, isn’t considered an enemy of the United States. Finally, fourth is that I’m not aware of any laws that say an American citizen cannot travel abroad and visit with the head of state of a nation that is opposed to policy of the US. I know that there actually is a law against visiting Cuba and other states, but I’m not aware of any such law regarding Venezuela.
So… is Sean Penn a patriot? I’m sure he thinks so. Do I share that opinion? Not so much… I guess I’d be more likely to put him into the same category as Jane Fonda during the Viet Nam War if he keeps going down the path he seems to be headed. As we all know, Jane Fonda is someone who crossed the lines from being anti-war into being anti-American. Is disagreeing with your nation anti-American? Not in my opinion, but sitting in an anti-aircraft position and smiling for the cameras in Ho Chi Minh City is (Jane Fonda). Has Sean Penn done this? Not that I know of, but he does seem to be headed in that direction. It would be interesting to see if he had the stones to go to Baghdad to meet with the insurgents there to smile for some pictures with them. Afterall, one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter. Right, Che?
/political rant
