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Originally Posted by Skybird
Fight or don't, there is no in between. But it is exactly such seductive words like those you quoted that deserve my disgust, August. It is the kind of talking the schoolteacher in "All quite on the Western front" uses to make the boys in his class flame up in hot emotions of passions and sacrifice and be enthusiastic to be sent into the heart of horror. It tricks people into something by absuing their emotions, and it does so to let war appear more tasty.
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You may be disgusted but Paine says nothing about being enthusiastic or making war appear more "tasty" to foolish schoolboys with dreams of battlefield glory like your schoolteacher did in AQOTWF. You either misunderstand Paines message or you're reacting to the fact that it was me who posted it here.
FYI what Paine talks about is finishing a job that has
already begun. Staying the course in the face of difficulty. Meeting the challenges of a task
one has undertaken and seeing it through in spite of adversity. After all it's very easy to be a "sunshine patriot" or "summer soldier", hopping on the bandwagon when everything is going well and distancing oneself from it when things don't. It's much more difficult however to stick with a tough job and not quit when things go badly.
I personally think it would be an extreme disservice to our soldiers who have lost their lives in this conflict to just give up and go home without having done everything we can do to achieve the objectives we sent them to fight and die for.
Make no mistake. The objective of a free and democratic Iraq is indeed a worthy goal. If it can be achieved it sets the entire region on a path to peace and prosperity. But such things do not come easily, nothing worthy and good ever has in the entire history or man.
If we abandon the Iraqis now we might as well also abandon the Israelis and everyone else that we consider our friends and who need our protection. I thank God every day that I don't live in a country where such two faced cowardice comes easily.