Nader is taking the votes, page 1

OK, maybe isolated was the wrong word.

We initiated a military conflict against the wishes of the UN, Germany, France, Russia, and many other nations that we consider(ed) allies. In addition to that the vast majority of the arab world now sees the US as not only being a threat, but an immenant one. The issue isn't true isolation, but rather showing the world that the US will activly use military might to alter the government of other countries even against the wishes of the UN and many countries.

In a way this is isolationism, in that the United States will undertake a major effort that impacts the globe as a whole regardless of what many countries friendly toward us wish. After 9/11 when the US went into Afganistan it did so to directly retaliate against the organization and the government that supported it, and many european countries supported that, or at least understood our actions.

However with Iraq, regardless of the state of the country, we activly changed a foriegn government without provocation, and without the understand and support of many of our allies.

Don't get me wrong, i'm all for standing up for our country, but in this case it was way out of line. We already police much of the world, which isn't our duty or right, but now we are saying who can and can not rule in another country. This is bad, and isolating us from the views of most of our once close allies.

As for the WMD argument, aside from the fact that we didn't find any, what about all the other countries with possible WMD? Iran? North Korea? Lybia?

Personaly I disagree that my cheap gasoline is worth our long history of policing the middle east, but now we are even changing around the structure of middle eastern countries AND against the wishes of our allies. This is not a way to end terrorism, its a way to rally more against us and make our allies look the other way as it gets worse.

This foriegn policy is not my only problem with Bush. THe patriot act also causes me great alarm. The act does have some very important information sharing parts to it, but it also strips people of the right to due proccess. I will stand up for my country, as long as it stand up for me and others. If people can be detained without being charged with a crime, without a lawyer, and indeffinatly, then i do NOT suport it.

I originaly voted for Bush in hopes that we would see a few more republican methods applied to our economy, not so that he could use 9/11 as an excuse to attack other countries unprovoked.

As a final thought, Many of the scandinavian countries have virtualy no poverty, drug abuse, or crime. Does this give them the right to invade the US because we have the poor, crime, drug abuse, and WMD? Basicly, the US claimed the Invasion of Iraq was justified based on humanitarian and WMD issues.