Quote:
Originally posted by HOZ+Mar 8 2005, 08:51 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (HOZ @ Mar 8 2005, 08:51 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Agamemnon@Mar 8 2005, 03:41 PM
I don't recall seeing many Free Afghanistan and Free Iraq bumber stickers.
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I think that was the point.... and you missed it. Go figure. The Lefties are simply on the WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY. [/b][/quote]
Well, that's just it. Freeing Iraq and Afghanistan was never about liberating people--at least, not until the WoMD theory was demonstrated to be false. All you'd see from supporters of the war was a 'Go USA!' bumper sticker--a nice, simple message that we would be unpatriotic to criticize (were we American), and which contains no note of morality. Of course, it might go hand-in-hand with a message about 'spreading democracy', which is simply a justification for why living in a perpetual war zone isn't really so bad.
History is ultimately a centralizing force. Fring elements on either side (left or right) will be proven wrong. The only way Tibet will be freed is with a complete collapse of China, which doesn't seem particularly likely. I think most FreeTibeters would be satisfied for Tibetans to be given freedom to practice their religion--not something that will happen very soon, but it is possible. Of course, sporting a bumper-sticker won't further that along, either. But the idea that the resolution in Iraq would be swift and painless, or that Iraqis would welcome american involvement in their lives was a popular idea at the beginning of the war, and those ideas were proven to be disasterously wrong. Realists on both the left and the right realized that the US would ultimately win with the Baathist party destroyed, but that the last elements of resistance would be extremely difficult to squash, and that an ongoing democratic Iraq would always be a difficult proposition.