Warriors

I was recently listening to a story on the radio about the troops overseas and how their time over there is constantly being extended. It got me thinking about all of these troops all over the world, from the U.S. and other countries. The people over here in America are always talking about respecting our troops and how glad we should be that they are protecting our freedom. But it's not just U.S. troops that keep the freedoms we have in our hands.
There have been troops from Australia, Canada, England and even the much criticized French that have played a major role in this war, and others, playing a part in protecting our freedom and theirs.
Another thing that I really got to thinking about is how we turn the people in the middle east into barbarians, going after us like animals. The problem with that is the fact that while we get so angry at these "evil" people, they're angry at us for the exact same reason; they view us as barbarians. It is a side effect of war; the de-humanizing of other people. It is considered a necessary thing, this propaganda. It's what makes us capable of hating each other and being okay with killing one another.
We're so upset about their attacks on the U.S. and Allied Forces, yet no one ever thinks about the damage, not to mention lives lost, we've dealt them. I'm not defending their actions, it's never okay to follow the path of vengeance or revenge. The only reason wars should happen is if they are the last remaining course of action.
Which of course, a lot of people now realize, is not what we did in Iraq. Everyone, even the Bush supporters, agree that we rushed into this blindly. It's obvious at this point in the war, we should have taken a more careful plan of action. Everybody was so upset about September 11th, Bush could have said the terrorists were from anywhere and we would have marched in.
Revenge is a survival instinct, the problem is that most survival instincts are just that, instincts. And those survival instincts are the animalistic side of human beings.
We hate them and they came over here because they hate us, they hurt us so we had to hurt them back. I agree that Saddam was a very bad man, but maybe if we would have planned this out instead of acting on instinct we might have a few less dead and have the true culprit, Osama. This of course is the Joe's Thoughts blog, so these are just my thoughts alone. I'm not here to tell anyone they're right or wrong.
I'm not a military strategist, politician, president or anything near; I'm just a person watching and observing the world around me.