The reason people began to say that the United States was unsafe, was because they finally understood we were unsafe. They did not just make it up. And no, I was not “scared”. I was worried about the risk of terrorism. But I was not hysterically frightened, and I doubt many Americans were hysterically frightened.

In World War II, the Germans were no followers of the Geneva Convention. I have a relative who remembers the Germans repeatedly divebombing ambulances, with obvious red crosses. They did not follow the Geneva Convention. So to believe that they mostly follow them is to go against history.

On the issue of bin Laden and the mistake at Tora Bora. I agree, we screwed up in that issue. We should’ve brought in more special forces and a show of force. That was a mistake. But now, we cannot go into Pakistan. If we did so, the Musharraf government would be overthrown and replaced with an Islamic fascist state very antagonistic to the United States. And guess what, that country would be a nuclear power. That is not good. For that reason, American troops should not go into to Pakistan in a search for bin Laden.

I agree Joe. You would be surprised what you would consider torture after being exposed to it. I can\’t really talk about what I experienced in Survival training and P.o.W. resistance. I will mention that If I knew I was going to be captured, I would rather eat my last bullet, than go through being a prisoner of war in a country that may use torture, or even one that can even interpret the Geneva conventions rules.

“On coercive interrogation, we do not use “torture”. We use loud music, temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, psychological intimidation, and occasionally waterboarding. By the way, these tactics work.”

You know how they make police get maced before they are allowed to use mace? That would be a good idea here, anyone using or authorizing these tactics should first be subjected to them.

Anyone who thought that WMD was the only reason to go into Iraq was kidding themselves, Iraq was always a WMD threat, but it had been put in a box, still they were capable. The reason WMD was mentioned at all is that it was a much better reason to sell to the UN and congress. The real reason was to oust Saddam.

More on WMD & Iraq. Back in the day, remember the axis of evil, my first thought was the most dangerous member of the axis is the DPRK (that’s North Korea). While we’ve been pissing away troops and money in Iraq, DPRK has been actually making the bomb. It is only a matter of time before Seoul and Tokyo get nuked, those are our closest Asian allies, and they are critical to our economy.

Speaking of pissing away troops and money. If we would have went to Afghanistan with over 100,000 troops, the likelihood of catching Bin Laden would have been much greater. Now he is in Pakistan, where we refuse to look for him. Sure, the Pakistan government says they are looking for him, but that isn’t working out. Pakistan should be put on notice, produce Bin Laden, or we will come find him ourselves, and if the Pakistani army tries to stop us, we’ll have no problem defeating them too. Oh yeah, Pakistan has nukes, but using them on US troops would be a major mistake that only DPRK (if you forgot, that is North Korea) would actually make right now.

Anyway, it seems odd that the most powerful military force on the planet is incapable of catching Bin Laden. What does that mean? Maybe our military isn’t as great as we thought it was?

It happened. It was widely reported on news stations and on the internet. It was a short lived offer but it was made.

“How can you not say that the United States was unsafe. A major terrorist attack destroyed the World Trade Center, cause serious damage to the Pentagon, and murdered 3000 people. That does not sound safe to me.”

Well if we were unsafe the day of the attacks and after the attacks then clearly we must have been unsafe long before the attacks. But it wasn’t that we were unsafe, it was being told to be scared. were you scared?

“As for the Patriot Act, it does not get rid of the right from unlawful search and seizure. The Patriot Act still requires permission from a judge. To get a wiretap, you still need the okay from a judge. It does not give law enforcement open season on wiretaps or other invasive investigative tools.”

Only problem is that the president interpreted the act in such a way that led him to wire tap people with out a court order.

“On the Iraq war, you are the one misleading. All major intelligence agencies in the world believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It was not just American intelligence. Secondly, to believe that the president deliberately misled the American people is to assume he is stupid.”

All major intelligence agencies? who? I don’t recall a single voiced being raised about Iraq. Was it the right time to go after them? If you were president would you have done the same. Do you deny the that the reasons we are there has changed time and time again? Yeah saddam was an asshole. He had a number in line but we pushed him to the front when we didn’t need to.

“On the number of troops killed in Iraq, they are high yet not historically. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, more Americans died then have been killed in Iraq. I am not saying that American soldiers dying do not matter. It is not just a statistic. However, I just wanted to give some perspective.”

True. Iwo jima was against an army. Every war we have ever used our military against has been against an army. My point is that a Military is not capable of winning against an Ideology. To fight and win against that you need to be smart, a well developed infiltration of terrorists groups is needed, small anti-terrorism fighting forces are needed. Good will and American Ideas are needed. Soldiers patroling down a street are nothing but targets. We need to be smarter.

“Who ever said it was un-American to criticize America’s policies? Please give me an example.”

People say that dumb shit all the time.

“On coercive interrogation, we do not use “torture”. We use loud music, temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, psychological intimidation, and occasionally waterboarding. By the way, these tactics work. According to Brian Ross of ABC news, the CIA used these tactics on Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. In addition, these tactics worked and these two terrorists ended up giving up information on some of their associates. Coercive interrogation works, and information gathered under duress helps in the war on terror. On the facts, you are wrong.”

In WW2 the Germans had amazing interrogators that followed the geneva conventions. They were successful without being harmful. Now, you can give examples of some of the things the U.S. does use, but how do you know they are not going beyond that?

Why would the president need authority to say what is and isn’t toture? think about that. For the most part it’s common sense what should not be done to another human being. Except now the rules can be bent and eventually broken.

Thank you for you comments.

How can you not say that the United States was unsafe. A major terrorist attack destroyed the World Trade Center, cause serious damage to the Pentagon, and murdered 3000 people. That does not sound safe to me.

As for the Patriot Act, it does not get rid of the right from unlawful search and seizure. The Patriot Act still requires permission from a judge. To get a wiretap, you still need the okay from a judge. It does not give law enforcement open season on wiretaps or other invasive investigative tools.

On the Iraq war, you are the one misleading. All major intelligence agencies in the world believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It was not just American intelligence. Secondly, to believe that the president deliberately misled the American people is to assume he is stupid. The truth was going to come out eventually, no rational person could have expected the truth to remain hidden.

On the number of troops killed in Iraq, they are high yet not historically. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, more Americans died then have been killed in Iraq. I am not saying that American soldiers dying do not matter. It is not just a statistic. However, I just wanted to give some perspective.

Who ever said it was un-American to criticize America’s policies? Please give me an example.

On coercive interrogation, we do not use “torture”. We use loud music, temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, psychological intimidation, and occasionally waterboarding. By the way, these tactics work. According to Brian Ross of ABC news, the CIA used these tactics on Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. In addition, these tactics worked and these two terrorists ended up giving up information on some of their associates. Coercive interrogation works, and information gathered under duress helps in the war on terror. On the facts, you are wrong.