Why are the ‘tough ones’ always the biggest cowards?

Sorry about the rant - I need to get this off my chest.

To me, the soul of our nation has always been our moral compass. Our willingness to sacrifice anything to get to what is right, to abhor what is evil and cruelly unfair.

Women’s rights, Civil rights, Human rights. Safe workplaces. Living wages. Aiding the oppressed.

American’s have died for all of these causes. Women scorned and shamed. African-American’s lynched. Homosexuals beaten. Laborer’s worked to death in mills. Union organizers murdered. American soldiers buried in parts of Europe.

When facing those demons, we knew people would die. We hoped for low body counts, for quick, fair resolutions, but we knew that struggles would cost families now for families to live better tomorrow. Americans tightened their belts, did without, sacrificed much, but held their heads up… because we were Americans. We choked back our fear and did what needed to be done.

Yet here we are… the world’s strongest military, the best intelligence community on the planet… and we agree to live in fear.

Those who bluster the loudest about our military strength, go on to sprinkle fear and uncertainty in their nightly speeches like so much salt. They are so afraid of the bogeyman with a car bomb they are willing to hand over what is greatest in our nation for a fraction of an ounce of peace of mind.

They are not “strong on defense” or “strong on terror” – they are COWARDS. I don’t see much difference between them and kids who give away their lunch money or their homework so they don’t get hurt. They give away our freedoms to we don’t ‘get hurt’ - yet they posture like bullies.

I am sick of it. NO it is not okay to torture people if doing so will save a hundred lives. NO it is NOT. I am willing to put my faith in our intelligence methods and analysts. I am willing to risk it. I want to trust them to use legal methods to do the best they can to protect my family and me. And if they fail, I am willing to accept the sacrifice.

I would rather die a proud American than die a little older full of shame.

Ashamed or proud – we will all die just the same.

I am here, and I am saying this NOW. It IS worth American lives lost in another terror attack to have the Constitution upheld. It IS worth another 9-11 to stop being so AFRAID of death and explosions that we allow people to listen to private conversations, to send people we suspect slightly (and often incorrectly) of a plot away on airplanes to be tortured in foreign countries, and have peaceful protesters terrorized.

U.S. citizens – it is time to step back and seriously ask yourself, are you really willing to give away what we stand for – to sell the soul of our great nation, to lose the respect of the world, to hide behind a tall wall of isolationist paranoia?

Not to me.

It's the fear that paralyzes us.

The terrorist threat? Sure it will always be there. The war on terrorism, like the war on drugs, can never be won.

Wake up America. Lets pleeeease, drop the drama.

and particularly modern authoritarian conservatism share something with "tough guy" posturing. Fear. That's why the Republican party has nothing to sell but fear anymore. Fear of brown people, fear of gays, fear that Christianity is under attack, whatever. They have abandoned rationality to deal exclusively with emotions, manipulating fear to feed their own greed.

I am 75 and I remember some of the things that happened during WWII. I remember we had to make our shoes last. Needed the leather for our troops. We needed to eat less meat. We needed it for our troops. We couldn't travel far. Didn't have enough gas the troops needed it.

Men went off to war and the women took over. We bought black out curtains. We had black outs. We collected scrap iron. We bought bonds. WE DID ALL THESE SMALL THINGS, COMPARED TO THE SACRIFICE OUR MILITARY MADE, TO HELP THE WAR EFFORT.

Of course some of us did. People like Prescott Bush profited from the war. He raised money for Hitler. He sold ammo to the Germans, et all. They took away his bank because he raised the money for Nazi Germany. AND HOW WAS HE rewarded, hell he was elected to congress. While the rest of America sacrificed for the war effort. America stood proud. Old men patrolled the streets at night in the Northeast and along the California coast watching for subs. We weren't afraid we didn't have a president and crew who were such a bunch of stinking cowards they all ran when it came to defending our country, while they, their family and their big business backers are profiting..Halliburton says it all. Roosevelt said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". bush says fear the enemy, watch out they'll get you run out and buy plastic and duct tape. And if you don't vote for us the enemy will bomb your cities.

Character tells. Republicans suck the bottom we all know this.

thank you.

Thanks.

I wish I could recommend this thread, but unfortunately I just found it.

But I agree with everything you said.