What Do I Believe?

What Do I Believe?

They say no one should ever formulate an opinion without all the facts. This is kind of optimistic. With most controversial issues, we'll never have all the facts. For example, with respect to the strife in the Middle East and our part in it, September 11th, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq... I don't think anyone on this earth knows ALL the pertinent history and FACTS. So unless people want to run around forever without an opinion on anything, you have to go based on what you yourself chose to believe. So what do I believe? It pretty much boils down to my opinion of what makes sense and what doesn't.

Is it common sense to believe that on September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon? Being that I actually saw one of the planes with my own two eyes, in real life, then YES it makes sense to believe this occurred.

Is it common sense to believe that if they did it once they would do it again? YES. Just like they say if your husband punches you once, he'll do it again, this is common sense to believe.

Is it common sense to believe that if we didn't retaliate, that certain countries would take that as a sign of weakness and threaten us whenever they want anything? There is that old saying "give a mouse a cookie and he'll want a glass of milk." I believe that makes sense. Say the school bully beats your ass hard. Then the next time he sees you he hits you up for money. What do you think is going to happen if you say no? What do you think is going to happen if you beat his ass so hard, you break every bone in his body and he winds up in the hospital? So YES, it makes sense for me to believe that non-retaliation would have resulted in us having a weaker position further down the line.

Is it common sense to believe that Saddam Hussein helps to fund terrorists plotting against the United States? Let me see... the guy supported Slobodan Milosevic, someone factually responsible for the deaths of countless ethnic Albanians/Sunni Muslims in the Balkans. He had his own son-in-laws executed. He stifled Kurdish revolts with chemical weapons used on ordinary civilians. Used to have mass executions like they were barbeques. Diverted international humanitarian money intended to feed his people into his random weapons programs. Led soldiers that brutalized and raped women by example, his own two sons were the worst offenders. He supported the Taliban, whose crimes against women and people not as fundamentalist as they are well documented. So even if I don't have all the facts and maybe on Saturdays, he sat home and rescued kittens while playing with his grandchildren and helping little old ladies across the street... still not much to recommend him. So YES, it is common sense to believe that Saddam was capable of funding terrorists.

Is it common sense to believe that our country's leaders were worried about Saddam possibly having nuclear weapons? In Desert Storm we found about 40 nuclear facilities in Iraq where they were developing nuclear and biological weapons. Prior to entering Iraq that time, we only knew of 2 of those facilities. After Desert Storm Saddam agreed that he would destroy all those weapons. He agreed to international weapons inspection. It never occurred because he always hindered the process, then finally stopped letting the inspectors in 6 years ago. So YES, it makes sense to believe that our leaders were worried he may have had weapons.

Is it common sense to believe George W. put Osama's loved ones on a plane after September 11th, because he gave a rat's ass about their welfare? Somehow I don't think the American voter would be too thrilled with G.W. if his main concern after learning of all those American deaths was for Osama's family. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that despite his supposedly diminished intellectual capacity, he would still be cognizant of the fact that the Coveted Road to Re-Election (that all first term presidents keep in mind) would not begin with kissing Osama's ass. So NO, this does not make sense for me to believe.

Is it common sense to consider that "fat white man" Michael Moore's movie Farenheit 9/11 as a truthful documentary? Well completely disregarding all the articles that have been written illustrating all the alleged "lies" he told in it, let's think about what a documentary is. A documentary by definition, "presents facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter." The key word to me in that definition, is the word "objectively." So the maker of a documentary, must essentially be non-biased so that he presents facts and doesn't data mine. To data mine means to search for data that only supports your theory. Is Michael Moore non-biased? The left and right should agree that the answer to that question is a definitive no. Therefore, people such as Michael Moore, Jesse Jackson, Newt Gingrich, David Duke, Patricia Ireland and Jesse Helms should NOT be making documentaries. So NO, it is not common sense to consider Michael Moore's movie as anything other than expensive propaganda.

Is it common sense to say you're a patriot, while reviling our president and our actions as a country and our military? WHO KNOWS. Everything is too big picture to determine I think. We'd need to scale it down to like 2 people. On one side there'd be an "American" who lives in his own world in the suburbs and drives an SUV and on the other a "terrorist" who just beheaded that American's 19-year-old son in protest, because his cousin is a Palestinian that Ariel Sharon's troops opened fire on when they saw him wearing a nail bomb, that he strapped on because the Hamas group offered him money to feed his starving children. Then make everyone choose sides.

So in the end, it should all boil down to what makes the most sense. You kind of have to see it that way. FACTUALLY speaking, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of his crimes. Technically, we're all supposed to believe that he's a stand up guy, who was just portrayed negatively by an overzealous prosecution eager to have his famous scalp on their belts. But would YOU want to be alone in a roomful of knives with him?