During every war EVER, freedoms have been sacrificed, even when the goal of the war is freedom. However you dont believe there is a war, so you will not accept my argument as valid.
You're misunderstanding. There certainly was a war in Iraq and still is one in Afghanistan. But they're not the War on Terror, and neither of them have had any bearing on US security since the Taleban were ousted from power and Bin Laden could no longer hide under their protection, and indeed the war in Iraq never did - No WMDs and no terrorist connections there before the war, remember?
It's the claim that the US is at constant war because terrorists threaten you at every corner I take issue with, because that is simply not true. And it's the general acceptance of a continuing deterioration of freedoms in the name of a threat that is blown up out of all proportion that I'm fighting here, because the only way a terrorist can 'win', the only way a terrorist can truely hurt a society, is by making that society hurt itself. And believe me, I do not want them to win.
I am a US Soldier, fighting the war in Iraq. You have not been here, how would you know if there was one or not?
I'd guessed as much, actually, and it doesn't change my stance. As for the 'war'? I know there's no war because there
was one and it ended. Your president said so, and he *is* the commander in chief. What's there now is not a war, because you've already won the war. The Iraqi government is on your side. You're not fighting soldiers, or even a major resistance movement, but a combination of people who have gone there simply because it's the easiest place to kill americans, and a bunch of people who want more power/more influence/to be left the hell alone. That doesn't mean you aren't fighting, and it doesn't mean what you're doing isn't important (it's actually more important than fighting a war would be, because you're trying to help people get a chance for a real life instead of simply being out to kill the enemy) it just means it's not a war you're fighting. And that certainly doesn't mean it doesn't feel like one when you're there.
Also, believe it or not, I think the US is doing the right thing to stay there. It's a mess there and it needs to be cleaned up, the people helped and the society rebuilt, so I think you're doing the right thing. But you invaded for the wrong reasons, lied to your friends and allies and tried to bully those who wouldn't get in line. If Bush had come out and said "It's time to help the people of Iraq, and correct our mistake from the first gulf war in leaving Saddam in control. We plan on going in there, taking him out, and giving the Iraqi people the freedom they've been denied for so long", I'd have been cheering him along. But he didn't.
Instead he used manufactured reasons to justify an unprovoked attack, completely ruined the international reputation of both the US government and its intelligence agencies (though I suspect the CIA rather likes being thought of as incompetent. It can only help, especially as they're actually not), and launched an ill-prepared operation that at least initially made things far worse for the Iraqi people than they were under Saddam. The only thing he
didn't do to make things worse was pull out once it turned out how big a mess it was, and a good thing too or Iraq would easily have become what it was not before the war: A free haven for terrorists and anyone with designs on hurting Americans.
