Proof Of Our Abusive Troops In Action, page 2

Here is my big fear, and I can't prove it absolutely but it is my fear.

That our government's policy crafting politicians partially through ignorance of foreign cultures and religions and a failure to listen to other government 'experts' sometimes does some very stupid things in their "occupation" policies, in part to gain points and votes from the Evangelical Christian segment of society eager to try to export their take on the Gospel anywhere they might possibly get a chance to exploit it and some of our politicians naively imaginng that the way to win enemy hearts and minds is to try to supplant their deep and long standing cultural and religious practices with our own, that those people we try to introduce them to think are much more shallow and incorrect than their own and we only insult and inflame their hearts and minds in the process.

That it is through that lack of respect for their cultural and religous differences and their local long standing codes in how they approach and respect cultural and religious differences between them that allows them to get along that typically keeps their societies different factions working well together as a community and state during 'normal' times.

Places like Iraq have had Christian communities since the actual time of Christ, Hebrews and Jews for living there for 1,000 years before that, and two different sects of Muslims, the Shiite and the Sunni and the Kurds all living side by side with protocols and manners deeply instilled for thousands of years of how not to insult or inflame the other groups passions.

How we approach winning hearts and minds through a process of Hershey Bars, McDonalds, Childrens Toys and Books and free Medicine and Health Care and free Evangelical coloring books, prayer cards, and Bibles printed in native tongues to often go along with every chocolate bar, hamburger, toy, book, or vaccination we give out...really upsets that apple cart in a big way and does cause the natives no small sucspicion that it's not just their politics that are under attack but their way of life and culture and long standing traditions.

Some people think and I am honestly on the fence about it that some of those poorly thought out inflamatory gestures on the part of ignorant or agenda driven U.S. Policy makers are what led to some of the more violent reactions early on of beheadings and the like.

There could be some truth to that, go deep into NASCAR country in the Carolina's and tell the boys gathered at the local bar you are pretty sure that if Toyota enters a stock car into the NASCAR races you are sure it will whip any Ford, Chevy, Pontiac, or Dodge and you might find yourself lynched for that cultural offense! Your thinking wow it's just stock car NASCAR racing and everyone loves their Toyotas what's the big deal, it's a big deal to them it's their culture and you sure don't want to go telling them Indi-car racing is where the real action and men are at either.

We do some stupid things that don't really make the locals like us, who then in turn do some stupid things that make us like the locals even less, that makes us sometimes do even worse stupid things that make the locals even like us less still.

We need to take our culture, and our religion out of it, and just promote the democratic process that allows their culture and their religions to create a democratic society based on it.

I hear a lot that Israel has a democracy and that's important because we have a democracy too. Yet democracies are about the cultures of that country each having a say. If you are setting up a democracy in a country where the people are all canibals, witch doctors, and slave traders, you can say like we do in Israel's case...cool it's a democracy they get our principals...or like far too often in the Religious Right and Left, the Evangelicals, the Neocons and Jews in this country in a case like a democracy in Iraq...yeah but they are all a bunch of terrorists and religious extremists that need to be ruled by the gun because they just don't get democracy...even though in that stark example of canibals and witch doctors and slave traders getting together to agree democratically on what kind of government works best for the that goverment truly is the reflection of a democratic process of those people and thus utilizing our core democratic principals.

If America wants to export democracy and put it forth as a better way of life, Americans have got to get that democracy as an ideal is a great one that's why we adopted it for our way of life, but democracy does not equate always nor should it to creating our same culture, philosphies and ideals and that's where we get confused over there and stymie the process and make it a whole lot harder. In too many peoples minds democracy is whether you want to have a Big Mac or a Whopper, a Hershey or a Nestles Bar, Worship at a Christian Church or a Jewish Temple, and drive a Chevy or a Ford, by being a member of one of two parties that promote all those things...that's not democracy that's a lot of our culture on display through democracy and Americans get too confused when they don't see enough identifiable cultural ellements from our democracy to believe democracy is really at play in a foreign culture and that solution is more Hershey Bars, more Hamburgers and more Christian Prayer Cards.

The Christian Right and Left, the Evangelicals, the Neocons who all want to imagine seperation of Church and State doesn't really exist, that the Forefathers were all devoutly Christian men who were just too discrete and polite to say it and put it officially into government despite evidence to the contrary of their religious nature, and the Supreme Court upholding again and again that Church and State are seperate, in the passion for their religion and faith and agenda it inspires domestically and globally forget one very important thing.

Our forefathers likely were not Christian or devotely Christian for one very important reason.

There is but one Christian God who has but one oppinion and one set of Laws dirived from them on all things...

Yet Democracy is a plural, multiple rendering of different and competing views that discourse and a poltical process of voting establishes both a majority rule and protections for the people whose beliefs didn't establish the majority.

One God equals just One Vote not Democracy, one Sect equals just one vote not Democracy.

Christians need to remember that this is a Democracy and not a Theocracy and our politicians who cater far too often really are not serving the Democratic process well by allowing that slow road to One Vote, One Culture, One Oppinion that is deemed more valid than any other to the extent it becomes the One Oppinion and One Culture we try to force on other people through a process we want to be "Democratic" but won't allow to be Democratic because it doesn't yield the One Oppinion and One Culture that the most vocal ellement of our democracy wants and thinks is right.

If we want to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, if we want the people of that region to respect us instead of fearing us, we have got to got to show them that Democracy can come up with the Ideas, Ideals, and Laws and Way of life that make THEIR culture happy, isntead of our increasingly singular view of Culture or Idealogy because one very vocal group that shares only One Oppinon believes it's the Only Oppinion and that they feel they have enough of a majority to effectively murder the Democratic process and other cultural views and religions and principals as being Democratic and the only sign that Democracy works.

That's why our forefathers really weren't Christian or Christian bent otherwise the United States Constitution would read like this...In the beginning there was only darkness...

Democracy = different ideals, different phillosphies, different cultures, different religions agreeing through a free speech process of debate how to create the laws that RESPECT EACH and ALLS.

That's not really the Democracy America is trying to export and that's why we aren't ever going to get out of Iraq or Afghanistan and America is never going to be respect or loved when foolish agenda driven people hijack the poltical process and make our foreign policy about their idealogy and somehow forcing it to grow to resemble the product total of our too long corrupted Democracy.

Our soldiers do a very good job of following some pretty stupid orders and planning, in a responsible and professional way in an area where some pretty poorly thought out policies don't allow our soldiers to be viewed by the people they have to bring those stupid policies too as the fine concientious human beings they truly are that in that frustrating process sometimes loose their own cool in the process, and sometimes allow politicians and policy to manipulate their own cultural belief systems to come into play when deal with people of another culture whose way of life we would all benefit, trying to better understand and respect instead of eradicating.

The End!