"I, for one, am willing to forgo certain freedoms to win this war"

[derby378]

Even today, I still find this mindset hard to believe. This is the opinion of one FReeper-type on CNN responding to allegations of torture and other human rights abuses in the Jose Padilla case:

Chris and John, we are in a war. This war is unlike any war that we have ever fought. It will be lengthy. There are no clear cut enemy or identified battle lines. It is a war against a foe who is committed to completely destroying us if possible. To them, we are a godless people only fit to die because, for the most part, we are not a fundamentalist islamic nation. Padilla was a soldier in that war against this country. He is a traitor. The people that we are fighting will use every freedom against us. I, for one, am willing to forgo certain freedoms to win this war. Padilla was prosecuted with evidence collected from intercepted communications. It took only two days of deliberations to convict him. Without these tools, he probably wouldn't have been convicted. I fear that people think that all we have to do is go about our own business and we will be safe and secure once more. They think that all we have to do is bring our troops home and all will be fine. The people we are fighting want us to do just that. They aren't about to quit until we are wiped off the face of this earth by any means possible. If we forget the lessons of 9/11, we will certainly have many more days like 9/11 to come from people like Padilla. I say it is a travesty that people like you have forgotten the horrors of 9/11 so easily and so willingly accept people like Padilla as if they are some form of a martyer. Remember, the freedoms you cherish are the very freedoms that our foe so deeply dispises and won't allow in their fundamentalist countries. If you disagree, just take one look at the two South Koreans who were tortured and then excuted by the Taliban for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time practicing the wrong religion. Now, that is the travesty that we should be crying about.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/16/padilla.verdict/index.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Somebody ought to refer this asshat to a famous quote

by that commie pinko liberal appeaser, Benjamin Franklin -- "Those who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security."

This idiot is a coward. Freedom always involves risks, and he's not willing to take any. He'd rather hide behind the authoritarian skirts of Mother Bush.

[Buzz Clik]

2. I'd forgo freedoms to ensure success in a war. Where's the goddam war?

The War on Terrorism is not a war at all -- it's an excuse, a means to an end, the clamp on Congress's gonads.

[PghTiny]

3. Here's another...

Give me liberty or give me death

- Patrick Henry

[SeattleGirl]

6. And another one:

Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither.

-Thomas Jefferson

[liberalmuse]

4. Another dumbass.

If you would forego your freedoms for ANYTHING, you don't fucking deserve freedom. I think of the billions on the planet who struggle everyday trying to be free. I think of the thousands of people who die everyday, sacrificing their lives for the possiblity of freedom. Oh, this pisses me off. Some people are so stupid, you wonder how they can even breathe.

[ThomCat]

5. Then obviously he's not fighting a war for freedom

because he's already given up those freedoms.
x(

[treestar]

7. Weird he doesn't see the problem with saying he'd give them up

while later going on about how the Muslims he calims he fears so much want to take them away. They are lost either way. (In his fevered mind).

It's hard to imagine they believe their own bullshit. 911 was carried out and was over, there was and is no threat of the annihilation of the U.S. from Muslim fanatics.

If he wasn't willing to give up those freedoms during the Cold War (when the enemy actually did have the capacity to destroy us and was organized as a nation as big as we are) then why now, for this pathetic band of terrorists hiding in inaccessible and ungovered areas of Pakistan?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. I, for one, am not

I'm willing to SACRIFICE by submitting to gas rationing, for example--but am totally UNwilling to give up ANY of the freedoms that my ancestors fought for.

[L. Coyote]

9. "I, for one, am willing to forego this war to win certain freedoms back"

Since the war this ideation created is just a belief system, it should be easier to end than actual war.

In a real war, the enemy also has to be willing to end the conflict!

Meanwhile, in the earphones Parenti on empire building (just posted on Political Videos forum).
His talk offers a lot of imperial rationalization for this neo-religion of perpetual war.

[derby378]

10. Boo-yah!

:toast:

[zbdent]

11. Let's see ... if in 98 Clinton had proposed any ONE of the things that Bush has been doing

this scumprick would have been one of the first to side with the "evil" ACLU fighting for his "rights" as a citizen of the US ...

I still remember Repukes screaming about the bloodbath that would occur with wasted lives led by Clinton in restoring a democratically-elected President to office in Haiti over a military dictator ... and also, the impassioned speech from one Repuke who lamented the loss of A TOTAL OF ONE SOLDIER in a drive-by shooting MONTHS after the bloodless restoration of Democracy ...

And how long did Repukes scream about "Clinton promised our boys home by Christmas" ... ?

[awoke_in_2003]

12. "our foe so deeply dispises"

Why is it that republicans cannot spell?

[baldguy]

13. "...just take one look at the two South Koreans..."

"... who were tortured and then executed by the Taliban for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time practicing the wrong religion. Now, that is the travesty that we should be crying about."


I thought we were fighting to defeat the Taliban - not emulate them.

[Chemical Bill]

14. Tell this guy that our troops are dying in Iraq for our freedom.

I know they aren't, but this nut-job is into slogans, and he may recognize that one. Then ask if he wants our troops to have died in vain.

Bill